[Posie]

What is your favorite movement of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Serenade No. 13)?

(Sorry about the typo in the title. I can't correct it.)

[Admin edit: fixed the title ]

 

[violadude]

I like all of them pretty well. The slow movement is beautiful and when I first heard it I thought to myself "why isn't this the more popular movement?". So I voted that one.

 

[MoonlightSonata]

The Romanze is gorgeous.

 

[Dave Whitmore]

Its been so long since I heard this I can't honestly answer this question. Yet. But thanks for giving me my first piece of music to listen to for the night. Answer incoming shortly!

 

[QuietGuy]

I voted for the Allegro -- not because it's my favorite, but because it's the only movement I know.

When I was in college, I heard this piece every single school day for the entire academic year. It's what the Form & Analysis professor played to demonstrate the fundamentals: how to analyze with your ears and not with your eyes. Its simple Classical Sonata Allegro form was the only one we studied. Not rondo, or binary form or rounded binary form and not even Romantic Sonata Allegro (i.e. theme groups.) I once remarked to a professor afterward that if I hear that theme when I die, I'll know I've gone to hell. At least that's how I felt at the time.

Now that I've been away from college for some years, I can stand to listen to it again, and this time venture forth and listen to all four movements. (Well, OK, maybe just the other three.) At any rate, thanks for the post!

 

[Dave Whitmore]

I voted for the Menuetto but could that could change in another listening. Honestly there is so little to choose between them. Each movement is a masterpiece and so beautiful to listen to.

 

[Antiquarian]

My favourite movement is the fourth, Rondo. I really don't know why... I just do. My favourite performances- Marriner/Acadamy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and Von Dohnanyi/Cleveland Orchestra.

 

[Weston]

Too be honest all but the menuetto have become -- "icky" is the only word I can think of. They have become icky from overuse, but I don't hear the menuetto as often for some reason. It also has something a little closer to counterpoint than the others. I much prefer counterpoint to the stubbornly homophonic texture of movement 1.

So movement 3 for me.

 

[Haydn man]

The Romanze for me
Have to agree with Antiquarian that Marriner with ASMF is a great performance

 

[SimonNZ]

Wish I still had my L'Oiseau-Lyre lp of The Music Party performing it. Best version I'd heard.

Now I can't even find an image of it.

 

[DonAlfonso]

I used to play the Allegro a lot 35 years ago whilst playing Space Invaders on my Apple II because I believed I got better scores that way but I voted for the Rondo. Talk about happy endings!

 

[Posie]

"why isn't this the more popular movement?"

That was my exact feeling, only about the Menuetto; it always makes me smile from ear to ear.

 

[Posie]

My favourite movement is the fourth, Rondo. I really don't know why... I just do. My favourite performances- Marriner/Acadamy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and Von Dohnanyi/Cleveland Orchestra.

That is actually the recording I have, and it's also my favorite. The tempo is just perfect.

 

[KenOC]

A curiosity: Mozart listed the work in his catalog as having five movements, not four, with a second minuet and trio (the two being movements two and four). There is much uncertainty over where the extra movement went, prior to the work's belated publication in 1827.

 

[Posie]

A curiosity: Mozart listed the work in his catalog as having five movements, not four, with a second minuet and trio (the two being movements two and four). There is much uncertainty over where the extra movement went, prior to the work's belated publication in 1827.

That really is a shame. It needs another minuet because this one is too short! I always have to listen to it twice.

 

[Albert7]

Too bad I can't vote for all of the movements.

 

[manyene]

It's very difficult, as the work is of uniform quality throughout so any judgement will be subjective, but the Rondo sums things up nicely. This work was my very first LP, a present from a family friend over 60 years ago, Decca with Karl Munchinger.

 

[Nereffid]

The Romanze is lovely, but I've got a special fondness for the first movement regardless of its familiarity.

 

[ArtMusic]

I like them all. Allegro I suppose for this poll. The purest form of melody by one of the very greatest composer of all.

 

[hpowders]

The second movement Romanze; the only movement keeping this piece from being trivial Mozart.