George Szell, The Cleveland Orchestra Mozart* – Symphonies Nos. 39 & 40 Exsultate, Jubilate

Conductor Tarmo Peltokoski, signed to the Deutsche Grammophon label at age 23 and promised to be the next phenomenon from Finland, impresses with his debut album offering fresh performances of three familiar Mozart symphonies. Some young conductors burn out, but one may hope it doesn't happen to Peltokoski, who shows impressive control over the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in these recordings. The sheer intensity of these readings also may bring the notion of burnout to mind. Other conductors have taken Mozart symphonies at a quick clip, but Peltokoski is close to the fast end of the spectrum, and he takes care to shape intermediate phrases to push the motion forward.

For the third volume of their complete Mozart series, Maxim Emelyanychev and Il Pomo d’Oro bring together the Haffner and Linz symphonies, composed in 1782 and 1783. At this point, Mozart had fully established himself as a composer of opera and dramatic works, and he conceived these symphonies with the mindset of a man of the stage – boldly!

It was George Szell who made the Cleveland Orchestra into a highly responsive virtuoso body, and when he died in 1970 he was in due course succeeded by Lorin Maazel, himself a renowned orchestral trainer. Here is Maazel's first Cleveland recording, notable for a quite outstanding quality of orchestral playing. The strings in particular have a remarkable depth of tone, though they play with great delicacy when it is needed; but then the orchestra as a whole plays with extraordinary virtuosity, tonal weight and exactness of ensemble. If the woodwind have a somewhat piquant blend this suits the music, which throughout is admirably served by Maazel's highly rhythmic, dramatic conducting.