Mackerras

Sir Charles Mackerras and the London Philharmonic Orchestra shared a musical heritage spanning 45 years and this live recording of Dvorák’s Symphonic Variations and Symphony No. 8 from 1992 pays tribute to a partnership that exuded a joy and vivacity in music making.

This is the definitive collection of Charles Mackerras’s Mozart recordings for Linn, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Comprising nine symphonies plus the Requiem, this boxed set exemplifies why Mackerras was acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest Mozartians and the SCO is internationally recognised as one of the world’s finest chamber orchestras. Mackerras’s recording of Mozart’s four late symphonies (Nos. 38–41) won multiple awards: the 2009 Classical BRITs Critics’ Award and the 2009 BBC Music Magazine Disc of the Year and Orchestral Awards, whilst his recording of symphonies Nos. 29, 31 (‘Paris’), 32, 35 (‘Haffner’) & 36 (‘Linz’) was named Symphonic Recording of the Year at the 2011 ECHO Klassik Awards. Completing the collection is Mackerras’s recording of the Mozart Requiem, boasting stellar soloists led by soprano Susan Gritton and mezzo Catherine Wyn-Rogers. The score, prepared by the renowned American academic Robert Levin, aims for a more historically authentic performance of the choral masterpiece. It was named a benchmark recording by BBC Music Magazine amongst other accolades.

Mackerras’s series of opera recordings, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, has a character very much its own, deriving from his natural feeling for the dramatic pacing of Mozart’s music and the expressive and allusive nature of its textures, as well as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s sensitivity and responsiveness to him. These are not period-instrument performances (except in that natural horns and trumpets are used, to good effect), but Mackerras’s manner of articulation, and the lightness of the phrasing he draws from his strings, makes it, to my mind, a lot closer to a true period style than some of the performances that make a feature of period instruments and then use them to modern ends (I am thinking less here of British conductors than some from Europe).

It's hard to think of a twentieth century Czech-language opera that has enjoyed more success than Leos Janácek's Jenufa, and there is certainly no shortage of good recordings of it. Among the most exceptional is this effort for Decca led by Charles Mackerras. Elisabeth Söderström is riveting in her portrayal of the small-town girl desperate that the empty-headed Steva, played by Petr Dvorský, will marry her and legitimize their child.

There are a bewildering number of versions of Gluck's opera. Gluck first composed the work in Vienna in 1762 with a libretto in Italian and the title role sung by a castrato. This initial version, in its austerity, was the work that changed the course of opera. In 1774, Gluck rewrote Orfeo to meet the tastes of Paris audiences. The work became longer and lost some of its harder edges. In the late 1830s, Gluck's great admirer and follower, Hector Berlioz, prepared his own version of Gluck's score. Performances of Orfeo tend to draw from several versions, with the cuts or changes that the conductor deems appropriate. There is no definitive score for Gluck's opera.

Recorded for Telarc between 1986 and 1990, Charles Mackerras and the Prague Chamber Orchestra's recordings of Mozart's complete symphonies have always been admired for their style, strength, and sensitivity. Reissued here in 2008 as a 10-disc set, those qualities are still obvious. Mackerras, surely one of the most versatile of contemporary conductors, clearly has a thoroughgoing understanding of Mozart's manner. From the first to the last symphonies (and this set contains not only the 40 numbered but also the 7 un-numbered symphonies), Mackerras stresses the score's elegance, wit, charm, and clarity. And the Prague Chamber Orchestra likewise wholly grasps Mozart's matter…

Recorded for Telarc between 1986 and 1990, Charles Mackerras and the Prague Chamber Orchestra's recordings of Mozart's complete symphonies have always been admired for their style, strength, and sensitivity. Reissued here in 2008 as a 10-disc set, those qualities are still obvious. Mackerras, surely one of the most versatile of contemporary conductors, clearly has a thoroughgoing understanding of Mozart's manner. From the first to the last symphonies (and this set contains not only the 40 numbered but also the 7 un-numbered symphonies), Mackerras stresses the score's elegance, wit, charm, and clarity. And the Prague Chamber Orchestra likewise wholly grasps Mozart's matter…

Recorded for Telarc between 1986 and 1990, Charles Mackerras and the Prague Chamber Orchestra's recordings of Mozart's complete symphonies have always been admired for their style, strength, and sensitivity. Reissued here in 2008 as a 10-disc set, those qualities are still obvious. Mackerras, surely one of the most versatile of contemporary conductors, clearly has a thoroughgoing understanding of Mozart's manner. From the first to the last symphonies (and this set contains not only the 40 numbered but also the 7 un-numbered symphonies), Mackerras stresses the score's elegance, wit, charm, and clarity. And the Prague Chamber Orchestra likewise wholly grasps Mozart's matter…