Mozart: Christian Blackshaw

DG and the Freiburger Barockorchester, one of the world’s foremost period-instrument orchestras, launch a new creative partnership with an album of works associated with the celebrated Mannheim court orchestra. Mozart’s Mannheim couples little-known gems by Cannabich, Holzbauer, Vogler and others with works written by Mozart during his formative visit to Mannheim in the late 1770s.

This box set packages the prizewinning complete edition of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart s piano concertos which were recorded with Christian Zacharias and the Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne over the past 12 years.
With his distinctive combination of integrity, unique style, surpassing linguistic expressiveness, deep musical insight and assured artistic instinct paired with his charismatic and captivating personality, Christian Zacharias has made a name for himself not only as one of the world s leading pianists and conductors, but also as a musical thinker. Beginning as a pianist and later moving on to work as a conductor as well, his international career burgeoned through numerous widely acclaimed concerts with the world s leading orchestras, renowned conductors not to mention several awards and recordings.

The Mozartists present an unprecedented survey of Mozart’s childhood stay in London from 1764-65. The wide-ranging programme includes Mozart’s remarkable first symphony (composed when he was eight years old), along with his two other London symphonies and his first concert aria. The repertoire also explores music that was being performed in London during Mozart’s stay, including works by J. C. Bach, Thomas Arne, Abel, Pescetti, Perez, George Rush and William Bates, many of which have not previously been recorded.

His most loyal fans are trombone teachers and students, but Christian Lindberg deserves a much wider following, not only for his extraordinary technical gifts, but also for his refined and deeply felt interpretations of music from many periods. Classical Concertos is an excursion into charming eighteenth century works by Michael Haydn, Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, and Leopold Mozart second-tier composers, admittedly, but competent craftsmen who turned out admirable works for their day.

Following their superb Dussek album (5 stars in BBC Music Magazine), Duo Pleyel’s Richard Egarr and Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya explore the seminal role a musical father figure can play in shaping another composer. From Mozart’s first meeting with Johann Christian Bach (the ‘London Bach’) as a young boy in England in 1764, an extraordinary musical bond and mutual respect was forged between the two great composers. The life-long influence of the older musician on Mozart is often seriously under-appreciated, yet Mozart quoted musical fragments and themes by Christian throughout his life, none more poignantly than in the slow movement of his A major piano concerto K. 414, written shortly after Christian’s death. The programme on this recording brings their four-hands music together to show both the influence and individuality of these wonderful composers.

This production of Mozart’s Zauberflöte received enormous and unanimous approval, when it was premiered in Salzburg. The Theatre wizard Jean-Pierre Ponnellecreated a staging which became part and parcel of the festival programme for over nine years and soon acquired the status of a legend. Of course, none of that would have had the same appeal if it had not been in accord with Mozart’s music, performed with perfect blend of lightness and pathos, humour and profundity, by James Levine and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; nor would it all have worked without a truly Festival-worthy cast of singers: the Finnish bass Martti Talvela, who departed way too soon in 1989, in his famous role as Sarastro, the incomparable Edita Gruberová as “the best-ever Queen of the Night” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), the legendary Tamino Peter Schreier as well as the petite, lyrical soprano Ileana Cotrubas˛ as Pamina. Further, Christian Boesch, who sang the role of his life with Papageno, was credited most for his performance in this legendary Zauberflöte.

„An outstanding instrumental soloist who is also brilliant conductor is hard to come by. However, Christian Zacharias of Germany is one such exceptional talent – a well versed, intelligent pianist on the one hand and a conductor with a broad repertoire, including opera, on the other.“ (BZ Basel, Alfred Ziltener, 11 May 2015) With his distinctive combination of integrity, unique style, surpassing linguistic expressiveness, deep musical insight and assured artistic instinct paired with his charismatic and captivating personality, Christian Zacharias has made a name for himself not only as one of the world’s leading pianists and conductors, but also as a musical thinker.

Johann Christian Bach - Freiburger Barockorchester - Concerti
EAC+LOG+CUE | WV: 283 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Carus # 83.307 | Country/Year: Germany 2007
Genre: Classical | Style: Early Classical Period

…In short: the so-called "English Bach" is portrayed here in a very fascinating way; you only really regrets having so few comparisons to the reading of historical conductors.