Mozart’s luxury problem is that with such a multitude of genial works in so many genres he runs the permanent risk of outperforming himself. If the symphony and the piano concerto of this evening’s programme had been his only works, they would have been played to smithereens a long time ago. Piano concerto no. 22 is grandly constructed both in duration and in the size of the orchestra, the score for the soloist is more difficult than earlier Mozart, but even so the most impressive element may be the orchestration itself. Whereas Mozart had earlier let two or three solo woods shine in melodious lines he now brings forward the entire wood and brass section in all its glory, the way we can hear in the dark andante and in the calm middle part of the otherwise wild rondo finale. The E flat is grand, imperial, and Mozart uses it splendidly in this masterpiece of a concerto that ought to be performed far more frequently.

This also applies to his 33rd symphony in B major. Here, Mozart uses a much smaller orchestra than in his other late symphonies; trumpets and kettledrums are not in use and the woods only count four in addition to horn. This makes the piece more intimate, and yet the sparkling colorfulness and brilliance are fully present. The minuet is not included in the original version from 1779; it was added a few years later in Vienna when symphonies with four movements had become more popular.

The apple does sometimes fall far from the trunk, but not in quality, for C.P.E. Bach was one of the most important composers of his time, but in style – it is amusing to consider that on a modest scale he was preparing the ground for romanticism in music while his father lived in Leipzig and crowned the baroque with his great mass in B minor. Admittedly, this evening’s Sinfonia belongs in the more traditional style from the mid 1700’s. This may be because Bach dedicated it to Baron Gottfried van Swieten who was a great admirer of his father and a bit more conservative in his taste. The outer movements send particularly the violin groups around in whirling moves, whereas the middle movement is Bach more as we know him, with crass dissonance and fog-like shades.