Arts preview: Jaap’s Gran Partita matches Mozart with Shostakovich

Sweet and sour isn't just an appealing combo in the kitchen, as this concert is out to prove. Conducted by Jaap van Zweden, the HK Phil's music director, the programme juxtaposes two works from different centuries, countries, and corners of the heart.

The occasion also gives the orchestra's wind and string sections an opportunity to strut their stuff as individual departments.

Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony is scored for strings only, while Mozart's Serenade in B flat major, which is more often referred to as Gran Partita, requires just 12 wind instruments, along with a double bass.

It is cast in the mould of an 18th-century serenade, a term denoting light music to be played outdoors in the evening. But Mozart's work transcends this definition, and its chamber-sized resources disguise the weightiness of its place in his catalogue: it is his longest instrumental work, taking some 50 minutes to perform.

Of the seven movements, the third found instant celebrity when it featured in the soundtrack to the film of Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus. On hearing the oboe solo, Mozart's rival Antonio Salieri declares: "This was a music I'd never heard. It seemed to me that I was hearing the very voice of God."