Not everyone can recognize Mozart’s Gran Partita as quickly as bassoonist Matthew Karr.
“If you hear three seconds of it, if a woodwind player hears three seconds of it on the radio, we can identify it immediately because it’s such an unusual sound,” says Karr. “It’s incredibly rich.”
And some classical music fans might not be far behind the professional players in recognizing the piece. The Gran Partita – like Mozart himself – has a following.
A few of the faithful, and others who might be ready to take a bite of the apple, get a chance to discover what the Mozart magic is all about when the Noulou Chamber Players presents Serenade No. 10 in B-flat, K.361, ‘Gran Partita’ for its 2025-26 season-opening concert Oct. 13 at Oxmoor Farm.
Karr says the music speaks to listeners.
“You can just sit back and enjoy it and kind of go on a voyage,” says Karr, the principal bassoon of the Louisville Orchestra, and one of 13 NouLou Players, plus conductor Nick Finch, who will present the work in the high-ceilinged Library music room at Oxmoor. “There’s so much emotional territory that all of us have experienced. Everyone will have something in their head when they’re hearing all these variations and experiencing all these amazing adventures. They’ll say, ‘I’ve been there. I’ve done that.’ ”
The ‘Gran Partita’ is a big ensemble piece for woodwinds – and something of an adventure in instrumentation. Part of the challenge for the NouLou Chamber Players is to mix and match the instruments of today with those of Mozart’s time, 250 years ago.
The NouLou arrangement calls for four clarinets, two oboes, two bassoons, four French horns and a contrabassoon. The inclusion of French horns is typical of the time and has stuck – with brass horns blending nicely with reeds, as in a woodwind quintet.
But there are changes.
Two of the of the four clarinet players will be covering parts Mozart originally wrote for Basset horns, a curiously shaped sort of alto clarinet that has pretty much been lost to time – with little regret. Basset horns were kind of L-shaped and difficult to play, with a joint between what one hand was fingering above, and the other hand was doing below. The Chicago Symphony has Basset horns which could be rented, in the interest of originalism. But hardly anybody does. And Karr says nobody misses them. “Kind of a dorky sound.” The piece is far better, he says, with two of the four clarinet players covering the Basset horn parts by transposing the notes a few steps down the scale. One imagines the range of a clarinet. From high soprano trills, to low, woody tones.
Over in the double-reed section, Mozart would certainly approve of the NouLou’s use of a contrabassoon. Writing for the instruments he had available in 1781, the composer penned a part for bass violin to anchor his woodwind ensemble. But Mozart always had an eye on the rapid development of new instruments. The composer noted the possibility of using a new instrument he’d heard about called the contrabassoon, rather than the bass fiddle. Sure enough, craftsmen perfected the contra-bassoon and some chamber groups have switched to it – when they have one available, and a player to play it. Filling that role for this concert will be contra-bassoonist Eric Louie, of Toledo, Ohio.
Louie’s contra-bassoon is a mahogany beauty. It looks like a bassoon, but bigger, with an extra loop of wood piping that achieves a sonorous low-register voice. Without risking a fist fight, you might say a contrabassoon is like a baritone sax, joining alto and tenor saxes in a 20th Century big band.
The cumulative effect envisioned by the NouLou Players could be “epic,” says Karr.
“The amount of sound this group will create when it’s playing full bore is going to be absolutely spine-tingling,” the bassoonist predicts. Not so much loud, as full, filling the high-ceiling Library with sound.
“But the other thing,” says Karr, “is that in certain places the piece is incredibly gentle. There are lovely textures and things that will stay with you forever. Mozart figured out how to capture that.”
Amadeus
All of which made the Gran Partita the perfect musical choice for an important early moment in Amadeus, the Academy-award-winning Best Picture of 1984.
In the scene, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is playfully chasing his girlfriend Constanze around and under already set banquet tables at the palace of Austrian Emperor Joseph II when he hears his music being performed down the hall. Mozart, or “Wolfie,’ as Constanze calls him, quick-foots it to the music room and jumps in front of the orchestra to conduct the Gran Partita. With a beaming smile on his face.
Looking on, jealous court composer Antonio Salieri glowers at Mozart’s youthful antics, but soon realizes he will never possess Mozart’s musical genius. On his deathbed Salieri laments: “Suddenly, high above it, an oboe. A single note hanging there, unwavering, until a clarinet took it over, sweetened into a phrase of such delight.
“This was a music I’ve never heard, filled with such longing. Such unfulfilled longing. It seemed to me I was hearing the voice of God.”
A diehard piece
NouLou cellist and director Cecilia Huerta-Lauf says the Gran Partita is a perfect choice to lead off and celebrate the group’s tenth season.
“All our programing is based on what the musicians wish to play, and the Gran Partita has been a diehard piece on our agenda for some time,” says Huerta-Lauf. “It’s uniquely special and gorgeous.”
The NouLou Chamber Players concerts at Oxmoor extend through fall and winter into spring, and feature chamber music works for ensembles of all sizes. All the concerts are on Monday evenings. A reception at 6pm precedes the performances, 6:30-7:30 pm. More information at NouLou.org.
