Monday Music Appreciation #24 -- a small piece of Mozart's Flute and Harp Concerto

I've always been fascinated by the harp. Maybe that's because I can kind of play a 12-string guitar, and can't imagine dealing with forty-seven strings -- and seven pedals besides!

Last week was Education Concert week at the Winspear Centre for music where I work, and over six performances, school teachers and Winspear staff successfully brought nine thousand grade 4-6 students from their field trip buses into the chamber to listen to a show called "Heavenly Mozart," and learn about the instruments of the orchestra. Now that I think about it, it was a pretty amazing feat, logistically speaking! They all came and went without too much trouble (only one child ended up on the wrong bus after a concert, but she was discovered in time!)

Though I sat in the lobby for some of the shows (to direct kids to the washrooms, mostly), if it wasn't too busy, I snuck in for the Flute and Harp Concerto K 299 second movement -- the andantino, which you'll hear below. It is performed by the Croatian Chamber Orchestra (Zagreb), conducted by Igor Tatarević, with Tamara Coha Mandić on flute, and Diana Grubišić Ćiković on harp.

The conversation between the two instruments makes for a really lovely piece of music for a Monday. Enjoy!