Moto di gioia - concert arias

Classical Opera has an outstanding reputation and track record for discovering and nurturing world-class young singers, and this exquisite programme of Mozart concert arias showcases four of the UK’s most exciting emerging artists. The concert arias are among the most neglected areas of Mozart’s output, and yet they contain some of his finest and most beautiful compositions.

Mozart prided himself on his ability to write arias that fitted particular voices “like a glove”, and several of the concert arias were written as acts of friendship for his favourite singers. As such they incorporate some of his most personal utterances, including the ravishing 'Vorrei spiegarvi', composed for the great love of his life, Aloysia Weber (she rejected him, and he subsequently married her sister).

Also included in the programme is the glorious 'Bella mia fiamma', written for the celebrated Czech soprano Josefa Dušek; Mozart impishly insisted that she could only keep this aria if she could sight-read it without making any mistakes, and the music does indeed include passages of extraordinary harmonic boldness and difficulty!