Mozart for Beer and Chocolate
Mozart is especially nice because it offers the opportunity to add a new dimension. The presenter can buy cheap wooden chopsticks. Give a single chopstick to each participant as they arrive. Don’t tell them what you are doing. Let them wonder. Then along about beer number 9 you can have a seventh inning stretch by having everyone stand and “conduct.” They’ll love you.
Don’t be fussy about the orchestral version you use; no one will notice anyway. You can find CDs of Mozart’s music in any store with a good classical music selection. The following 12 pieces have been chosen to go with the recommended beer selection. Copy them, in this order, to a CD or cassette tape. Remember that if you use your recording in a public forum, you should check with the management to be sure you are working through a properly licensed public venue.
Start your introductory background music with “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (5:39), while you explain how the tastings will go. (“For each course, first sip the beer, then nibble the chocolate. Don’t overwhelm the one with the other. Then enjoy the music.”
With the first beer, No. 1 in our list: “Turkish March,” “Piano Concerto No. 17, Sonata in A Major III Rondo Alla Turea” K.331 (3:21), which was popular in Mozart’s day.
Beer No. 2: “Horn Concerto No. 4 in E Flat III Rondo Allegro Vivace” K.495 (3:29).
No. 3: “Rondo Allegretto Oboe Concerto in C” K.314 (5:13).
No. 4: “Third Movement Menuetto Allegretto” from “Symphony #39 E Major” (3:51).
No. 5: The youthful Mozart here, at his best with the “Piano Concerto in D, III Allegro” K.175 (5:00). Mozart may have drunk similar beer.
No. 6: “Serenade #9 in D Major” K.330, the “Post Horn III” finale “Presto” (3:46).
No. 7: “Allegro Moderato Trumpet Concerto in D” (4:00). A lively trumpet piece to wake everyone up.
No. 8: “Andante” from “Piano Concerto #21 in C” K.467 (5:34), slow and delicious, the lovely “Elvira Madigan” melody.
No. 9: The most sublime piece in all of Mozart’s Ks, the unearthly and beautiful, smooth and sophisticated “Clarinet Concerto in A Major, II Adagio” K.622. By now, the audience is exhausted; this was almost too much. The cure? Have everyone stand up and “direct!” This is the longest piece of the evening (7:40) but no one will mind.
No. 10. We need to keep everyone awake, so it is the “Overture” to the opera, “Marriage of Figaro” (4:04), full of life and energy, and reflections of moods, followed by the final chorus from the opera, “Magic Flute,” where everybody lives happily ever after, or for two weeks, whichever comes first.
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