Mozart: Serenade No. 10 "Gran Partita" K 361 Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern & Pietari Inkinen

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791): Serenade No. 10 "Gran Partita" K 361:
• 1 Mozart: Serenade No. 10 "Gran Partita" K 361: I. Largo - Molto allegro 09:21
• 2 Mozart: Serenade No. 10 "Gran Partita" K 361: II. Menuetto 09:26
• 3 Mozart: Serenade No. 10 "Gran Partita" K 361: III. Adagio 05:20
• 4 Mozart: Serenade No. 10 "Gran Partita" K 361: IV. Menuetto. Allegretto 05:34
• 5 Mozart: Serenade No. 10 "Gran Partita" K 361: V. Romance. Adagio-Allegretto-Adagio 07:16
• 6 Mozart: Serenade No. 10 "Gran Partita" K 361: VI. Tema con variazioni 10:20
• 7 Mozart: Serenade No. 10 "Gran Partita" K 361: VII. Finale. Molto allegro 03:29
• Total Runtime 50:46

Info for Mozart: Serenade No. 10 "Gran Partita" K 361

Mozart’s Serenade No. 10 in B flat major, K. 361, also known as the “Gran Partita”, is one of his most important works for wind ensemble. It was written around 1781 (the exact date is not certain) and consists of seven movements, including the famous Adagio, which plays a central role in Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus.

The work is written for an unusually large wind ensemble: two oboes, two clarinets, two basset horns, four horns, two bassoons and a double bass. It is characterized by its melodic beauty, harmonic sophistication and emotional depth. The Adagio in particular is often described as one of Mozart’s most moving pieces of music.

The Gran Partita is not just a serenade in the classical sense, but a work of symphonic dimensions that makes impressive use of the possibilities of a wind ensemble.

Around 1781, when Mozart composed the Gran Partita, he was in a decisive phase of his life. He had just given up his position as concertmaster at the court of Salzburg Archbishop Hieronymus von Colloredo and had moved to Vienna to work as a freelance composer and musician.

In Vienna, the composer looked for new opportunities to develop musically. He performed regularly as a pianist, composed numerous works and established contacts with important personalities in the Viennese music scene. His meeting with Constanze Weber, whom he later married, was particularly influential.

This period was also characterized by financial insecurity, as Mozart could no longer rely on a fixed salary. Nevertheless, he composed some of his most important works in this time, including the opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern
Pietari Inkinen, conductor

The German Radio Philharmonic
shapes the musical life of an entire region – most sustainably in the catchment area of ​​the orchestra's locations in Saarbrücken and Kaiserslautern, but also in neighboring France, as well as in Mainz, Karlsruhe, and Mannheim. Tours in recent years have taken the orchestra to Switzerland, Poland, China, and Japan, and the orchestra regularly performs in South Korea.

The Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen has been Chief Conductor since 2017. His appointment brought the music of Jean Sibelius and his compatriots into focus. As a trained violinist, Pietari Inkinen maintains close ties with leading artists on the international violin scene. Pinchas Zukerman, Vadim Gluzman, and the exceptional young violinist Daniel Lozakovich will be following invitations from the German Radio Philharmonic in the 2018/19 season.

Stylistic diversity defines the concert programs of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie. The focus is on the great late Romantic core repertoire – in the current season, this includes key works by Gustav Mahler, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, and Dmitri Shostakovich. Modern classics such as Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Krzysztof Penderecki are performed, as are compositions by George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, and Cole Porter from the borderland of jazz. Musical creations by lesser-known composers also find their way into the programs, such as the Symphonie brève by the Franco-German Romantic Louis Théodore Gouvy, the Suite in the New Style by Erwin Schulhoff, written in Saarbrücken in 1918, and the music for orchestra by Rudi Stephan, who died in World War I in 1918. The German Radio Philharmonic opens up new worlds of sound as a performer of contemporary orchestral music—this season featuring works by the Swiss David Philip Hefti, the Finnish Kimmo Hakola, and the Austrian Johannes Maria Staud—and as host of the "Saarbrücken Composers' Workshop." With moderated concerts and the "DRP-PUR" format, the orchestra is breaking new ground in the communication of music. The music education program "Classics in School," aimed at younger generations, is also an integral part of the orchestra's work.

Live in the concert hall, on the cultural programs of Saarländischer Rundfunk and Südwestrundfunk, on SR/SWR television, on ARTE, or on CD, the German Radio Philharmonic offers classical music lovers the enormous breadth of a radio orchestra's repertoire at the highest artistic quality. The orchestra reaches its audience in the digital world via livestreams and media library offerings, as well as on YouTube and Facebook.

The German Radio Philharmonic was formed in 2007 through the merger of the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra (SR) and the Kaiserslautern Radio Orchestra (SWR). The orchestra gained its reputation through its chief conductors Karel Mark Chichon (2011 to 2017) and Christoph Poppen (2007 to 2011). Conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, who died in 2017, maintained close ties to the orchestra as its principal guest conductor. In 2015, he was appointed Conductor Laureate at the age of 92.

Pietari Inkinen
Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen is one of the leading conductors of his generation. Highly acclaimed for his “thinking on a grand scale” and exceptional technique, he has gained international recognition and has conducted major orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Sydney Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra and many others. In April 2025, he made a highly successful debut at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing, conducting Die Walküre in a new production by Davide Livermore.

The music of Richard Wagner holds a central place in Pietari Inkinen’s artistic work. In 2023, he led the new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival (directed by Valentin Schwarz). In the summer of 2021, he conducted Hermann Nitsch’s production of Die Walküre at the Green Hill. His acclaimed performances of the Ring cycle at Opera Australia in 2013 and 2016 earned him the 2014 Helpmann Award for Best Musical Direction and the 2016 Green Room Award for Best Opera Conductor. In 2014, he also won the Franco Abbiati Prize from the Italian Association of Music Critics for Das Rheingold at Teatro Massimo in Palermo.

Inkinen’s operatic engagements have also taken him to the Finnish National Opera, Théâtre de la Monnaie, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Bavarian State Opera, and the Semperoper Dresden, where he conducted a highly successful new production of Eugene Onegin.

Pietari Inkinen served as Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern until the end of the 2024/25 season. Previously, he held chief positions with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul, and the Ludwigsburg Festival Orchestra. During his tenure as Music Director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, he recorded the complete Sibelius symphonies for Naxos. Another Sibelius cycle, recorded live at Suntory Hall, was produced with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. With the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Inkinen recently completed a recording project featuring all symphonies by Dvořák and select symphonies by Prokofiev (SWRmusic/Naxos).

Inkinen’s artistic journey was also the subject of a 2023 documentary directed by Sven Rech, Ein Taktstock und ein Reisepass – Pietari Inkinen, Dirigent.

In addition to his conducting career, Pietari Inkinen is also an accomplished violinist. He studied with Zakhar Bron at the Cologne University of Music before continuing his conducting studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

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