Ha Ha, fooled you.

Because, it's one Franz Xaver Mozart 1791 - 1844 to whom I refer.  That's
right the offspring of Wolfie and Konstance.

The CD I have in front of me is:  Franz Xaver (Wolfgang) Mozart's Complete
Chamber Music with Piano, performed by the Ravinia Trio with Hartmut Rohde
on Divox CDX-29309.

The booklet tells us how the poor mite lost his father when he was just a
couple of months old.  Enter Haydn who arranged for the lad's education
with music instruction by Hummel (orchestration) and bizzarely Salieri
(choral writing).

The first item on this disc the Piano Quartet in g minor op1 was, we are
told, written when the lad was just 11.  The notes then go on to describe
how the the spirit of his father's quartet in g hangs over the work.

I have to say that this work is so good that it is almost unbelieveable
that a child of that age could have written it.  How could someone so young
communicate something about the human experience to a middle aged person
like me?

I didn't detect dad's shadow here except in the finale, but I certainly
heard Haydn there somewhere.  The last movement does start with a Mozartian
(the father) like theme but soon becomes a set of variations.

The other works on the disc, two violin sonatas and a cello sonata, were
written later.  They are equally impressive.  I hear Beethoven and Schubert
here.  But that takes nothing away from the quality of music.

All in all then a nice issue of fine music which I picked up for a couple
of $'s!

I wish he'd written more in this form.

Bob Draper
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