Mozart Digital

A glorious celebration of 'the Dutch nightingale': all of Elly Ameling's song-recital albums for Philips are being released by Universal Music!

Flanked by a spectacular cast featuring the role debuts of Nicky Spence (named ‘Personality of the Year’ by BBC Music Magazine in 2022) and Simona Šaturová, the conductor Ben Glassberg (Music Director of the Opéra de Rouen Normandie) once again demonstrates his Mozartian temperament. This late masterpiece (written at the same time as Die Zauberflöte) places his musical genius at the service of a plot centred on the complexity of emotions, passionate love and the absurd disaster of betrayal.

A storm rages off the island of Crete, forcing King Idomeneo, who is returning from the Trojan War, to make a fateful vow to Neptune. If the enraged sea god allows him to reach the island safely, he promises that he will sacrifice the first person he meets to him. Once on the beach, Idomeneo is met by his son, Idamante - of all people- and the merciless and irreconcilable world of the gods seems intent on ensuring that the promise is fulfilled…

Martin Wahlberg and his Orkester Nord complete their recording series dedicated to French opéra-comique with Die Zauberflöte. Surprising, yes, but research has shown that Mozart’s masterpiece is directly descended from the French tradition and from an initiation tale of the Enlightenment.

Mozart’s string quintets represent "some of his most sophisticated musical thinking … wonderful music, exhilarating to hear” (from the liner notes by Eric Bromberger). With this three album set, the Alexander String Quartet and Paul Yarbrough complete their Mozart compendium.

L'Enlèvement du Sérail (French Version) avec Florie Valiquette, qui inclut aussi la participation de Gaétan Jarry et l'Orchestre de l'Opéra Royal, est un enregistrement vocal de l'œuvre de Mozart, avec un enregistrement de Mathias Vidal disponible dans le catalogue d'Apple Music Classical et sur Deezer.

"If this first volume is anything to go by, the journey will be a joy…Hewitt makes them sound effortless.

International sensation Federico Colli continues his personal exploration of the music of Mozart with this second volume of works for solo piano. Colli opens his programme with the Adagio in B minor, K. 540, from 1788, toward the end of Mozart’s short life. The only piece on the album not to involve variation form, this Adagio instead adopts sonata form, and is an extremely rare case in Mozart’s output of its chosen key.

Così fan tutte, a comic opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, is noted for its sophisticated ensemble writing and Mozart’s nuanced portrayal of the characters’ emotional journeys. The opera’s overture, and arias such as “Come scoglio” and “Un’aura amorosa”, showcase the composer’s melodic genius and ability to convey complex psychological states through music, making it one of Mozart’s most performed and beloved operas, celebrated for its wit, intricate musical textures and insightful commentary on the human condition.

Boredom (in German: “long whiling”) is apparently what drove Wolfgang to compose one of his string quartets at the inn at Bolzano. And yes, he was doing well, as father Leopold assured Mozart’s mother in a letter dated 28 October 1772. How can we even imagine what boredom must have felt like for a 16-year-old genius? Was he sitting lackadaisically at the table with his father, scribbling counterpoint on paper and casually inventing the genre of Classical string quartet in passing? Or was Wolfgang just solving musical-logical Sudokus, as we all tend to do in such cases?