When we talk about Mozart's great works, his operas, symphonies and piano concertos always come into play. This is certainly not wrong. However, if one asks for something like the work, which may be regarded as the essence of all Mozart's genial compositions, it becomes narrow with a well-founded answer, since the famous divine spark can be found in almost all the works of the genius, who died too young. And yet there is one work by the composer of Salzburg origin that can be regarded as the essence of his work. We are talking about the Divertimento KV 563, a not too popular late work by Mozart, which he wrote for string trio, and thus for a format that Mozart only once considered with a composition. This, however, is not the decisive unique selling point of this work. On the contrary, the composition's above-average quality and virtuosity, even for Mozart, which is his longest and most profound chamber music work and which for a long time was considered unplayable, also poses a very special challenge for the three highly experienced, young musicians on this album, Liv Hilde Klokk (violin), Ida Bryhn (viola) und Torun Sæter Stavseng (cello). A peculiarity of this divertimento, to whose genre Mozart contributed numerously, especially in his late creative years, in order to compensate for other sources of income that had run dry at the time, is that there is neither a patron nor a model for the method of composition, which, in contrast to the divertimenti serving the entertainment of the upper echelons of society, is characterized by unusual depth, which lends this divertimento absolutely unusual seriousness and earnestness despite its unbelievable beauty.

Of the six movements of Divertimento KV 563, the first and last are of fast pace, while the slow movements in the centre are each followed by a minuet, including a two-fold rural one. This may sound harmless, but it is not really. Rather, each movement, even the minuet, opens up a new world of sound that has never been heard before in this form. There is, for example, the fourth movement, an andante with variations, which at the beginning comes up with a simple theme, which undergoes completely unexpected changes in the course of the movement, which simply amaze. Or the other slow inner movement, which Mozart set in the key of E-flat major, which was rather unusual for him, and which belongs to the most beautiful, indeed one of the greatest slow movements in the world of divertimenti and the musical world as a whole, in which a broken triad is varied and decorated until the sky seems to open. To prevent the listener from taking off completely when listening to so much divine music, the minuets, tuned in a rural village music style, bring him back to the ground of facts between all the glory of the slow movements.

The three string-players, who have come together for this very special album project as TrioTaus and who can look back on an extensive career as soloists and chamber musicians, use their know-how of listening to each other, gained in different chamber music ensembles, for this Mount Everest-like composition by Mozart, which can be regarded as the essence of his work.

Liv Hilde Klokk, violin
Ida Bryhn, viola
Torun Sæter Stavseng, cello