Mozart Edition

As Bram van Sambeek writes in the liner notes to his new disc, bassoonists consider Mozart’s Concerto in B flat major the absolute pinnacle of their repertoire. A man of great contrasts himself, Mozart recognised the potential of the bassoon as a vehicle for expressing a wide range of moods and attitudes – from the joking and playful to the dreamily tuneful. Another composer who showed a special understanding for the instrument was Carl Maria von Weber, whose Concerto in F major doesn’t come far behind Mozart’s on the list of all-time bassoon hits.

Together with the Talich Quartet’s accounts on Calliope, these Mozart string quintets with Arthur Grumiaux and friends represent the best currently available choices. Since the Grumiaux version was released in 1973 it has remained a stalwart of the catalog, and was previously released as part of Philips’ grandiose Complete Mozart Edition in 1991 and later was included with other chamber works in a pair of Duos issued in 1997. The analog sound has held up well compared to current standards and is perfectly acceptable, placing the musicians in a natural, believable sound-stage.

Anyone thinking of Mozart as a performer probably imagines him at a harpsichord or fortepiano, an accurate picture. Mozart was a gifted keyboard player, but not a showman of the keyboard. He detested empty virtuosity. Wolfgang, however, had been trained from his earliest years by his father Leopold as a double talent. He played both harpsichord & violin. The popularity of his sonatas, variation sets, & concerti for the piano has tended to overshadow his violin compositions, but the 1st sounds that his baby ears received probably came from his father’s violin…

Ensemble Zefiro, a period instrument group, give careful, attentive readings of Mozart’s two big octet serenades. In each case the opening movement is rather deliberate but very exactly judged in terms of dynamics and accentuation, and collectively very efficiently and precisely executed. The remaining movements are taken quite quickly, especially the minuets (the second of K375 seems unduly so and the trio is done much more slowly; while the canonic one in K388 is a little lightweight).

This exceptional production, shot in 1988/1989 on 35 mm film and directed by George Moorse, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and Klaas Rusticus, has been digitally remastered with the greatest care for high-quality audio and video restoration. The music of Mozart has been an essential driving force of Daniel Barenboim’s entire life. It remains central to his performing career both as a pianist and as a conductor. These illuminating performances of Mozart’s last eight great piano concertos admirably demonstrate Barenboim’s dictum that even when a true musician has already performed a familiar work hundreds of times, he or she ‘never accepts that the next note will be played the same way as it was played before’.

This exceptional production, shot in 1988/1989 on 35 mm film and directed by George Moorse, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and Klaas Rusticus, has been digitally remastered with the greatest care for high-quality audio and video restoration. The music of Mozart has been an essential driving force of Daniel Barenboim’s entire life. It remains central to his performing career both as a pianist and as a conductor. These illuminating performances of Mozart’s last eight great piano concertos admirably demonstrate Barenboim’s dictum that even when a true musician has already performed a familiar work hundreds of times, he or she ‘never accepts that the next note will be played the same way as it was played before’.

In 1789, a performance of "Messiah" that was to have a radical effect on the course of the oratorio's performance history was given in Vienna. Baron Gottfried Van Swieten, who later translated and edited the text for Haydn's "Creation", had, as a diplomat in London during the late 1760s, become an ardent Handelian. Among other Handel scores, he took back to Austria a copy of the first edition of the full score of "Messiah", published by Randall and Abell in 1767. Beginning with "Judas Maccabaeus" in 1779, he introduced works by Handel into the annual oratorio series given for the benefit of the Tonkunstler Society, a Viennese musical charity. In 1789, he presented "Messiah" and, for this Viennese premiere, commissioned Mozart to fill out the accompaniments, largely dispensing with keyboard continuo and replacing the tromba parts practically unplayable for late 18th century trumpeters.

This 2-CD set contains recordings of music conducted by Gary Bertini when he was chief conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Cologne of the West-German Radio Corporation Cologne (WDR). In the Mass in C Minor, the first soprano part is full of virtuoso technical difficulties – especially in the famous “Et incarnatus est” passage – and here legendary soprano Arleen Augér interprets it in an exemplary manner.