Mozart Kraus

Nordic classicism and excellent performances by Mikael Helasvuo and the Rantatie Quartet. Kraus's lush and sensual flute quintet turns out to be like Mozart's flute quartets.

This will be the Magic Flute chosen by most people who want to live with just one. It finds Georg Solti in a relatively relaxed state of mind, with an excellent if not particularly famous cast, and an orchestra and chorus that any conductor would give his left arm (not the one that welds the baton) to work with. The singers are not particularly well-known (London seems to have set up Solti as the star of this production) but a lack of celebrity attitudes and close attention to the conductor have paid substantial dividends in this production. Sumi Jo, in a spectacular and dramatic performance of the Queen of the Night's two arias, attracts special attention, as do Uwe Heilmann (Tamino) and Michael Kraus (Papageno). –Joe McLellan

Joseph Martin Kraus, also named as the "Swedish Mozart", has been many years a shadowy existence in music history. Gluck and even Joseph Haydn saw "a real genius" in his virtuose and nearly early-romantic works. His position as composer at the swedish court under Gustav III. made it possible to have a fix income and a blithe creativity. This CD-Set gives us an overall musical impression about his compositions in all genres: Beginning with the incidental music to Amphitryon, the high virtuos Italian Cantatas, his Symphonies from different life periods, till the early String Quartets- Gluck and Haydn have not been mistaken.

Joseph Martin Kraus was an innovative 18th Century composer, acclaimed by Haydn as one of the only two geniuses he knew (Mozart was the other). Small wonder that intense interest has been ignited by his forward-looking music, especially the epic six act opera (a prologue and five acts) Aeneas in Carthage, a retelling of the famous story of Dido and Aeneas. Originally intended for the inauguration of the new opera house in Stockholm, the première was delayed for ten years until 1791 allowing Kraus to refine his titanic score into a true magnum opus.

In the 1830s, Schott publishers commissioned Johann Nepomuk Hummel to make arrangements of Mozart’s orchestral works for piano, flute, violin and cello to help facilitate performances in a domestic setting.

Five complete operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at budget price in one space-saving set, featuring a twenty-four-page booklet with biographies, detailed listings, and historic photos! Exciting live recordings taped 1949–1974. A stunning array of great artists in Mozart’s most beloved operatic works!