Gil Shaham and Xian Zhang

A little suite for winds meant as background music to a Viennese party. Mozart never did anything halfway, though, and this Serenade is a jewel box holding his most touching melodies.

Finally getting its due, this French-Creole composer’s violin writing is a high-water mark of 18th-century grace. And there is no more graceful violinist to make these lines sing than the soulful Gil Shaham.

Every bar bristles with brilliance, leaps of melody and delicious new harmonies. Bach wrote hundreds of pieces, but none more beautiful than this, seemingly tailor-fit for the gifts of our guest Gil Shaham.

In the century before recorded sound, Mozart made dinner music like this. But every minute of this serenade for strings is so full of unbridled joy—no wonder it is his greatest hit.