A varied survey of Mozart's "occasional music", including his grandest serenade and one of his earliest and strangest works, alongside two late and powerful masterpieces.

Mozart's "Posthorn" Serenade has been recorded many times before, but perhaps never with such stimulating and contrasting couplings as this new recording by the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice under their Armenian music director Vahan Mardirossian. This line-up recently recorded an attractive album of Mozart's 'Lodron' Divertimenti (97307); now they turn to the grandest of the serenades Mozart composed when he was still in the service of the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg.

The "Posthorn" Serenade dates from 1779, and the harmony of its grand introduction immediately belongs in the rich, ambivalent world of the mature Mozart. Everything here is designed to entertain, such as the graceful minuet couplets and the extended 'concertante' movement with a cadenza for solo winds, but beyond that there is a uniquely Mozartian pathos that is most strongly expressed in the Andantino in D minor.

Few things in Mozart's oeuvre could present a greater contrast than the patchwork of dances and melodies that the 10-year-old composer put together during his convalescence from a serious illness in The Hague. He produced this 17-movement "Gallimathias Musicum" as a commission for a piece to celebrate the accession of William V to the throne as Prince of Orange. The album then makes a typically Mozartian shift to the serious tone of the Freemasons' Funeral Music, composed in 1785 in memory of the composer's Masonic brothers.

No less impressive is the fugue in C minor, which Mozart originally wrote for two pianos in December 1783. When he re-composed it for strings in June 1788, he added an austere and introductory Adagio. Known as Adagio and Fugue K546, this has been recorded by ensembles ranging from string quartet to full symphony orchestra; the Czech Chamber Philharmonic offers a convincing middle ground.

- A substantial part of Mozart's oeuvre consists of works that could be described as 'light music'. Most of these pieces were composed for festive occasions in Salzburg, such as name days, birthdays and other celebrations. There is evidence that some of them were intended to be played outdoors, in a rustic garden, where party guests were enjoying a drink or a meal. Many of the lighter pieces were called "Divertimento", others "Serenade", "Cassation" or "Notturno".

- Mozart's Posthorn Serenade, composed in 1779, is one of his best-known and most successful serenades. The name of the serenade is derived from the well-known solo for the post horn, a valveless brass instrument used by the post office in Mozart's time. Its five movements combine elegance with lively rhythms. From the graceful Andante to the spirited Menuetto, it is bursting with melodic richness, charm, infectious brilliance and wit.

- Also included in this recording are the cheerful Gallimatthias musicum K32, the moving Maurerische Trauermusik K477 and the Adagio & Fuga K546.

- Played in historically informed performance practice on modern instruments by the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice under the direction of Vahan Mardirossian.