Juventus Collegium FOK

Humour has always been part art, including music. It came to the fore in the Renaissance, when Aristotle's idea of the imitative function of art was revived. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). was undoubtedly one of the greatest musical imitators and caricaturists. Mozart's crowning work, and one that is quite unique in conception, is his Musical Joke  (Ein musikalischer Spass), KV 522 for two French horns, two violins, viola and doublebass, in which he caricatures the composer's craft and more precisely failures to master it. The target of Mozart's merciless humous is first and foremost less capable composers, beginners and amateur composers. With astonishing accuracy he caricatures the hole range of shortcomings that usually characterise their works. We do not know for whom Mozart composed this brilliant parody nor when and by whom it was performed. It is nonetheless almost certain that it was addressed to the musical cognoscenti who would be able to understand it and appreciate its mainly intellectual humour. In Mozart's own list of pieces the Musical Joke bears the date 14^th June 1787.

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) was a great expert on the music of past epochs and this knowledge deeply influenced the development of his own musical language, even though it  was rarely expressed in direct musical allusion to concrete styles. Two orchestral serenades written in his youth, which are captivating for their fresh melodies, often with a folk colouring, and their very ingenious instrumentation in chamber style, are beautiful examples of his admiration for the work of the masters of Classicism. The Serenade no. 2 in A major, op. 16 was composed in the years 1858–59 and revised in 1875. Brahms conceived it in more chamber mood than the preceding D major written for large orchestra. In its approach to instrumentation it testifies to the author's distinctive idea of sound and in this respect it can  without exaggeration be called one of the most original pieces of its time - Brahms dropped the violin from the whole piece, thus allowing the wind instruments to which he entrusted the leading role to stand out all the more, while the remaining strings are mainly given an accompanying role.