b'Program NotescontinuedEmperor Joseph IIs Harmonie ensemble with this instrumentation was established in Vienna in April 1782. Its repertoire consisted primarily in arrangements of excerpts from popular operas and serenade music, which served as light background entertainment. By contrast, Mozarts piece is concert music, demanding the listeners full attention. He clearly thought highly of the work, as he later arranged it for string quintet.The four movements of the C Minor Serenade follow the standard classical format of two quick outer movements with a slower second movement and a third movement Minuet and Trio. The first movement Allegro is a standard sonata form movement, notable for its dramatic opening, which emphatically introduces the home key of C minor. The first oboe is the melodic protagonist, though there are plenty of conversational exchanges with the other instruments. The clarinets and bassoons create a delightful variety of accompanimental textures, the horns project power, and there are dramatic moments when the bassoons play the opening theme again beneath a flurry of activity in the other parts. The sweet warmth of the Andante is all the more affecting after the intensity of the first movement, prominently featuring the mellower timbres of the clarinets and the horns. The remarkable third movement, Menuetto in canone, is reminiscent of Haydn in its ingenious use of strict canonic writing within a standard dance movement. The theme played by the oboes is answered beginning one measure later by the bassoons. The Trio, in canone al rovescio, is still more complex, with independent mirror canons in both the oboes and the bassoons, in which the answer to each melody is played with its intervals inverted. The final Allegro is a delightful set of variations, including an extended variation in E-flat major and ending boisterously in C major.InstrumentationTwo oboes,Duration21two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns~Nell Flanders, Assistant ConductorPrinceton Symphony Orchestraprincetonsymphony.org/ 16'