K 344 Zaide (originally, Das Serail) is an unfinished opera, written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1780.

Emperor Joseph II, in 1778, was in the process of setting up an opera company for the purpose of performing German opera. One condition required of the composer to join this company was that he should write a comic opera. At Salzburg in 1779 Mozart began work on a new opera (now known as Zaide although Mozart did not give it such a title). It contains spoken dialogue, which also classifies it as a Singspiel (literally, "singing play"). Only the arias and ensembles from the first two acts were composed. Missing are an overture and third act. It was popular at the time for operas to depict the rescue of enslaved Westerners from Muslim courts, since Muslim pirates were preying on Mediterranean shipping, particularly to obtain slaves for various purposes. This story portrays Zaide's effort to save her beloved, Gomatz. Mozart was composing for a German libretto by Johann Andreas Schachtner, set in Turkey, which was the scene of his next, completed rescue Singspiel (Die Entführung aus dem Serail). He soon abandoned Zaide, to work on Idomeneo, and never returned to the project. The work was lost until after his death, when Constanze Mozart, his wife, found it in his scattered manuscripts in 1799. The fragments wouldn't be published until 1838, and its first performance was held in Frankfurt on January 27, 1866, the 110th anniversary of Mozart's birth. Zaide has since been said to be the foundations of a masterpiece, and received critical acclaim. The tender soprano air, "Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben" is the only number that might be called moderately familiar. WIKIPEDIA



VIDEO: Queen City Chamber Opera (QueenCityChamberOpera.org) Recorded January 26, 2013 

K 396 Fantasia in C Minor,

Fantasy No. 2 in C minor, K. 396/385f (German: Fragment einer Fantasie in c) is a fragment of a violin sonata composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna in August or September 1782. Its tempo marking is adagio. The fragment consists of 27 bars, the violin part entering at bar 23. Maximilian Stadler later composed a "completion" of the work for solo piano which is 70 bars long and ends in C major. A copy of the piece in Stadler's hand contains a dedication to Constanze Mozart. It is this version which is usually performed and recorded.

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VIDEO: Mozart Fantasia K 396 by Naoumoff. Reims France June 27 2011

K 525 Serenade in G Major, (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik; A Little Night Music)

Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major), K. 525, is a 1787 composition for a chamber ensemble by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German title means "a little serenade," though it is often rendered more literally but less accurately as "a little night music." The work is written for an ensemble of two violins, viola, and cello with optional double bass, but is often performed by string orchestras. The serenade was completed in Vienna on 10 August 1787, around the time Mozart was working on the second act of his opera Don Giovanni. The work was not published until about 1827, long after Mozart's death, by Johann André in Offenbach am Main. It had been sold to this publisher in 1799 by Mozart's widow Constanze, part of a large bundle of her husband's compositions.

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VIDEO: Gewandhaus Quartet

K. 421/417b String Quartet No. 15

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's String Quartet No. 15 in D minor, K. 421/417b is the second of the Quartets dedicated to Haydn and the only one of the set in a minor key. Though undated in the autograph, it is believed to have been completed in 1783, while his wife Constanze Mozart was in labour with her first child Raimund. Constanze stated that the rising string figures in the second movement corresponded to her cries from the other room.

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VIDEO:Jerusalem Quartet Alexander Pavlovsky, violin Sergei Bresler, violin Ori Kam, viola Kyril Zlotnikov, cello Recorded at the Schubertiade Hohenems