Composers: Mozart
Compositions: Arrangements
Performers: David Owen Norris p,
Katy Bircher f, Caroline Balding v, Andrew Skidmore vc
Catalogue Number: Hyperion CDA68234

Downsizing big works of the great composers became a cottage industry in early 19th-century London, led by the Italian-born composer, pianist and piano-maker Muzio Clementi and publisher Johann Baptist Cramer. They would take whole symphonies, concertos and even operas and arrange them for small, easily portable ensembles so they could be played in salons and reach audiences out in the provinces.

For many this was their first taste of Haydn, Mozart and the young Beethoven,...