Die Zauberfloete Roger Norrington

One of the most fascinating recording projects of this period was Sir Roger Norrington's pioneering set of Beethoven symphonies with The London Classical Players. Here at long last–after a century and a half of neglect–was a conductor bravely determined to conduct these symphonies according to Beethoven's difficult metronome markings, and as played on the original instruments that Beethoven had composed for–that is, the very sounds that he must have had in his mind when he wrote this music down. Norrington astutely saw that Beethoven's original brass and percussion instruments play a crucially prominent role in these symphonies, and most importantly, that they cannot be tempered without diminishing the passionate intensity of the music itself.

Roger Norrington legt Wert auf einen stets schlanken, dabei aber ausgesprochen erfüllt klingenden Verlauf der Musik - erfüllt im praktisch-klanglichen Sinn, aber auch von der religiös-poetischen Dichte her gesehen. Der wuchtige Eindruck entsteht aus der Intensität jedes musizierten Augenblicks. Obwohl das Klangbild ein wenig wie aus der räumlichen Tiefe kommend wirkt, klingt alles durchsichtig und im über weite Strecken engverzahnt geführten Stimmenverlauf sehr gut gestaffelt und geordnet. Bei der technischen Ausführung bleiben keine Wünsche offen. Ausgezeichnet präsent und intonationssicher bis in die gefürchteten Extremlagen singen die beiden Chöre aus Hamburg und Stuttgart, großartig ausbalanciert spielt das Orchester, eingeschlossen das von Hans Kalafusz völlig uneitel-linear und leicht gebotene Solo im Benedictus, und die vier Solisten bilden ein bestens zueinander passendes Quartett, in dem jeder im günstigsten Licht erscheint.

Following their critically acclaimed first volume of Mozart’s violin concertos (CHAN 20234), Francesca Dego and Sir Roger Norrington complete the set, once again with outstanding support from a reduced Royal Scottish National Orchestra. This cycle not only represents the first time Sir Roger has recorded these concertos, but the present album is also his final recording project. All five concertos were written before Mozart was twenty; nevertheless, his rapid development as a composer is evident in the progression from the first to the fifth, which has an unusual Adagio section within the first movement, an extensive slow movement, and of course the extensive ‘Turkish’ episode in the final movement (probably based on Hungarian folk music). Whilst given on modern instruments with metal strings, these are performances immersed in Norrington’s lifetime of experience in period performance practise. As The Sunday Times noted of the first album: ‘Pairing the veteran Mozartian Norrington – a pioneer of historical performance practice – with the young Italian-American soloist Dego proves inspiring in what promises to be one of the freshest of recent cycles of the Mozart concertos.’

These performances of three early and one "late" symphony of Schubert are both bracing and youthfully brisk, done on tart "period" instruments of Schubert's time. This produces what Schubert would have heard and expected to hear. Just listening to each performance convinces that these are "right." Sound is good. Warm and focused.