Concerts at 7: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Serenade for thirteen winds

August 24, 7 PM at the Plainfield Congregational Church

Musicians from the Northeast, many of whom are members of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and the Coast Guard Band, will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Serenade for thirteen winds in B♭ major, K. 361/370a. The piece is scored for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 basset horns, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, and contrabassoon.

In Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus, Mozart's rival Antonio Salieri, having at first taken the young composer for a buffoon, on examining the score of the third movement of the Serenade says, “On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse. Bassoons and basset horns, like a rusty squeezebox. And then suddenly, high above it, an oboe. A single note, hanging there, unwavering. Until a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I'd never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God.“

Founded in 2009,  Concerts at 7 is a volunteer nonprofit arts program of the Plainfield Congregational Church. We sponsor a summer chamber music series at the church, presenting four concerts each August.

The Plainfield Congregational Church is located in the center of Plainfield on Route 116.