Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sinfo nia concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E flat Major, K. 364. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart penned his sublime Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola in 1779 aged 23, when still in the stifling service of the Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg, but also buzzing from the artistic inspiration received on a recent tour to Paris and Mannheim. Owing much of its wonderful colouring to the unusual decision to make a viola – an instrument Mozart loved playing himself – the violin’s entirely equal partner, it opens with an Allegro maestoso abounding in different melodic ideas, moves to a heartrendingly expressive Andante, and concludes with a joyous Rondo.