Mozart Symphonies 39 40 41

The Capella Istropolitana consists of leading members of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra of Bratislava; though their string-tone is thinnish, it is very much in scale with the clarity of a period performance but tonally far sweeter. The recording is outstandingly good, with a far keener sense of presence than in most rival versions and with less reverberation to obscure detail in tuttis.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - The Symphonic Testament: Following a long maturation process, Jordi Savall presents his interpretation of Mozart’s Last Three Symphonies. He has chosen - on this double album - to repeat the Symphony No. 40 twice, in order to underline the continuity existing from one work to the other (this is an important dimension of this milestone of the orchestral music in the XVIIIth Century).

Sir Colin Davis celebrated his 80th birthday on 25 September 2007 and this set of late Mozart symphonies was released to mark that important event in the career of one of the great Mozart conductors of the past fifty years.
It was during the early 1950s when Davis started conducting Mozart operas with the Chelsea Opera Group that attention was first drawn to his genius as a Mozart conductor. In 1960 he conducted Die Zauberflöte at Glynedebourne (replacing an indisposed Beecham); during his tenure as Music Director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (he succeeded Solti in 1971) his Mozart performances drew huge critical acclaim.

Nobody knows why Mozart wrote three symphonies—his last, as fate decreed—in less than three months in the summer of 1788. Some say it was divine inspiration, others that he desperately needed a new income stream. Whatever the case, they stand among the great landmarks of the symphonic repertoire. The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and its founder-conductor, Marios Papadopoulos, in their expansive, lyrical interpretations of the last two of these works convey their nobility and classicism. They articulate countless details of rhythm and phrasing that all too often fly by in period-instrument performances, especially in the finale of Symphony No. 40 and the “Jupiter” Symphony’s opening “Allegro vivace,” the latter graced by superb string playing. While the prevailing mood is serious, there’s room for charm and lightness in the minuets of both symphonies.

In the summer of 1788 Wolfgang Amadé Mozart (1756–91) wrote what from any standpoint is an extraordinary set of three symphonies – as Jarno says in Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, people “do extraordinary things without respecting orderliness”. It was presumably not Mozart’s intention that this group of symphonies should remain his final word on the subject, and a weighty one at that. Despite every setback, it tells of a time of new departures, not of valediction. Only three years later, during which time he had written many other masterpieces, death snatched the pen from his hand. He was only thirty-five…