Concertos No. 11, 12, and 13 were Mozart’s first Concertos written upon moving to Vienna from Salzburg. In a letter addressed to his father Leopold, he described them as “a happy medium between too easy and too difficult; very brilliant, pleasing to the ear, and natural, without being vapid.” By then, Mozart was free of his father’s dominating presence. He wrote them to win over Vienna, and they did, firmly establishing him as Europe’s premier composer. But with these pieces, he was also seeking confirmation from his father. And the desire for parental approval is a basic one. Indeed, there are many moments in the Concertos, whether sublime or gallant or majestic, where one still feels a sense of child-like wonder.

Transcriptions of chamber works to orchestral works have been interesting asides for composers for a long time - whether the transcription are alterations of a composer's own songs or chamber works to full orchestral size or those of other composers for which the transcriber had a particular affinity. Stokowski's transcriptions of Bach's works are probably the most familiar to audiences. The two transcriptions on this recording are the creations Gustav Mahler and his election to transcribe the quartets of Beethoven and Schubert is not surprising: Mahler 'transcribed' many of his own songs into movements or portions of movements for his own symphonies. Listening to Mahler's transcriptions of these two well known quartets - Franz Schubert's String Quartet in D Minor 'Death and the Maiden' and Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet in F Minor 'Serioso' - provides insight into both the orginal compositions and the orchestration concepts of Gustav Mahler. The themes of these two works would naturally appeal to Mahler's somber nature. Mahler naturally extends the tonal sound of each of these transcriptions by using the full string orchestra and in both works it is readily apparent that his compositional techniques within string sections are ever present.

On this recording, Dutch violinist Niek Baar returns to the pieces that inspired him to become a violinist. Together with the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, he has recorded some of the most wonderful violin repertoire ever written!