Date of Production: 2010-05-27

Playing Time: 00:57:00

Catalogue Number: 2.110252

UPC: 747313525256

The Places

From Caserta and Naples in southern Italy we travel to Sicily, an island with a remarkably varied history, held by Phoenicians and Carthaginians before becoming part of Roman territory, later to be occupied by Ostrogoths, recaptured by the Byzantines, ruled by Saracens, and held by Normans, Germans, French and Spanish. Only in the mid-nineteenth century was Sicily drawn into the unified country of Italy.


The Music

The music is by Mozart, his Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K.467, written in Vienna in March 1785, and the second of his two piano concertos in a minor key, the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K.491, composed in Vienna in the following year. Mozart had made three extended Italian tours between 1771 and 1773, and his father Leopold had hoped that his family might be able to settle there if a position could be found for his son. In this, however, they were unsuccessful, and the third Italian tour was Mozart's last.