Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Divertimento (Bis SACD Super Audio CD)

• BIS is delighted to release the debut recording of the star-studded ensemble, Trio Zimmermann, formed by Frank Peter Zimmermann, Antoine Tamestit and Christian Poltéra. Here they perform W.A. Mozart’s Divertimento in E flat major which the scholar Alfred Einstein described as ‘Each instrument is primus inter pares, every note is significant …’ Composed in the same year as the three final symphonies, Mozart’s only real trio for violin, viola and cello is a weighty work – six movements and close to 50 minutes of music – and the fact that Mozart chose the title Divertimento (from the Italian divertire: to amuse) for a piece of these dimensions has often been remarked upon.

• To round off the disc, the trio perform Franz Schubert’s first contribution to the string trio genre, the opening – and only complete – movement (Allegro) of his String Trio in B flat major, D 471, written in 1816 by the nineteen-year-old composer.