Leopold Mozart: Sinfonia Burlesca - clarinet quintet
Original written for a string orchestra of 2 viola, 2 celli and bass/bassoon, I have arranged it for clarinet quintet (4 Bbs and one bass) and transposed it from G to Eb so clarinets arer playing in F.
The “Sinfonia Burlesca” is a vehicle for the presentation of comedic characters. It demonstrates Leopold Mozart’s predilection for laconic musical genre-painting: he dedicates a minuet to “Hanswurst” (literally “John-Sausage”) familiar from traditional Salzburg street theatre; “Signor Pantalone”, the commedia dell’arte’s wealthy, aged and vainglorious womanizer gets his own conceited Andante. Harlequin, the mercurial and mischievous trickster in the chequered costume, gets the last word, mocking and bamboozling his upper-class audience.
The movements are:
I.Allegro
II.Hanswurst
III. Il Signor Pantalone
IV.Harlequino