Mozart Edition Philips

To commemorate the bicentenary of the death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (December 5, 1791) Philips Classics Records assembled The Complete Mozart Edition comprising 180 compact discs arranged into 45 themed volumes. Each volume in the series is accompanied by a deluxe booklet with detailed information about the works, with many illustrations.

Mozart wrote a plethera of fine chamber music in the galante style of the classical era: Quintets for various instruments, string quartets, string trios, string duos, piano trios, violin sonatas and the two magnificent piano quartets here. With these two quartets, Mozart more-or-less invented the genre which was later taken up by Schumann, Brahms and Dvorak. These piano quartets show Mozart in both a dramatic mode in the minor work and a typical merry mood in the major piece.

For Mozart, wind instruments had their own voices, full of warmth and tenderness, as much as singers did, and his concertos are animated with an operatic sense of drama. His own experience as a violinist allowed him to write five concertos for the instrument that are full of sparky virtuosity, here conveyed with sovereign authority by Henryk Szeryng. This collection (originally released as part of the legendary Philips Classics Mozart Edition) is full of truly authoritative performances featuring internationally acclaimed artists.

This is probably Mozart’s least interesting opera–if indeed it is an opera at all. Composed at the end of 1771 in honor of the 50th anniversary of Salzburg’s Archbishop Schrattenbach, its performance was cancelled due to the archbishop’s sudden death. Mozart re-dedicated it to the new archbishop (Colloredo). There is still doubt as to whether it was ever performed. It’s in one act of just under two hours and is concerned with the Roman general Scipio, who in a dream is made to choose between the godesses Fortune and Constancy to guide him through life. Needless to say, he chooses Constancy over luck, and we don’t care.

One normally thinks of Divertimenti being occasional works, written to accompany other activities. While this was the intent of Mozart, his brilliance just can't be caged. These works are varied, interesting, expressive, and even famous. The three Divertimenti K136, K137 and K138 are actually string quartets but someone (W. Mozart? Leopold Mozart?)wrote "Divertimento" on the autograph score. Each has its own character and all have found their way into the repertoire. Often heard on classical music stations, they are tuneful and energetic works that predict correctly the brilliant future Mozart would achieve.

Unquestionably, the clarinet quintets of Mozart and Brahms have earned time-honored and well-deserved places in the repertoire of clarinetists worldwide. In the informative and well-written annotations by Eric Hoeprich, we read that “they embody the maturity, depth, experience, and possibly even a premonition of an otherworldliness soon to be experienced firsthand.”

What is one to say except that this is another triumph for this superb partnership? For years Schreier has been known as a sovereign interpreter of Mozart's tenor roles in opera. Here he devotes all his vast experience, skill and inspiration in that field to the more intimate canvas of that composer's small but significant output of Lieder, and for each finds the ideal interpretation, in terms of tone, line and phrasing, inestimably helped by Schiff's piano, a partnership seemingly made in heaven.