Nikollaus Harnoncourt

This is the more recent re-issue, and much cheaper version, of an older issue of the same recording. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra directed by Harnoncourt and Friedrich Gulda brought off some finest Mozart playing in the two late concerti - No. 23 and No. 26. There are numerous No. 23 recordings. This one is among the top ones. However, the less popular No. 26 is the one that steals the show in this recording

Mozarts Große Messe, KV 427, ist Fragment geblieben und gehört dennoch zu den eindrucksvollsten Werken geistlicher Musik in Europa. Der Salzburger Meister folgt hier den Messemodellen Bachs (und Händels). Auch Spuren der italienischen Gesangstradition lassen sich erkennen, vor allem was die Ausarbeitung der Sopranpartien betrifft. Frieder Bernius, in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Musikwissenschaftler Uwe Wolf, hat den Mut, der ausgedehnten Diskographie zu dieser Messe eine weitere Einspielung hinzuzufügen (Kammerchor Stuttgart/Hofkapelle Stuttgart). Das Besondere an dieser Aufnahme ist der aus Praxis, theoretischen und musikhistorischen Überlegungen gespeiste Versuch, eine sehr diskret ergänzte Fassung dieser Messe vorzulegen.

Cecilia Bartoli, as is well-known, has been a faithful Decca artist, and her Decca discography includes two all-Mozart recitals, both with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra under György Fischer: Decca 430 513-2DH and Decca 443 452-2DH. However, as a result of inter-company agreements which have allowed Bartoli to team up with conductors and singers contracted elsewhere, most of her appearances in complete Mozart operas have been on other labels. Here we have a selection from three sets in which she took part for Teldec and Erato, now under the Warner Classics umbrella.

Thanks to his omnivorous curiosity, conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt has revived an authentic masterpiece. Several opera composers–Lully, Handel, and Gluck–had already availed themselves of the amorous and stormy adventures of the knight Rinaldo and the enchantress Armida, drawn from Tasso's Jerusalem Liberated. Composed in 1784, Haydn's Armida was his the final opera he wrote for his patron Prince Esterházy, but it was also the composer's debut opera seria.

Harnoncourt regards the last three symphonies as one whole work, which he calls Mozart’s ‘Instrumental Oratorium’. Sony Classical present Harnoncourt’s final recording of these works, with a fascinating new interpretation. In terms of structure, he argues that the first movement of the Symphony No. 39 is the Prelude of the ‘Instrumental Oratorium’, whilst the last movement of the Symphony No. 41 is the Finale. He points out that the Symphony No. 39 has no real ending, whilst the Symphony No. 40 has no real beginning, and only the Symphony No. 41 has a Finale. There are a number of factors which Harnoncourt points to as further proof of his new interpretation – musical themes.

This is the more recent re-issue, and much cheaper version, of an older issue of the same recording. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra directed by Harnoncourt and Friedrich Gulda brought off some finest Mozart playing in the two late concerti - No. 23 and No. 26. There are numerous No. 23 recordings. This one is among the top ones. However, the less popular No. 26 is the one that steals the show in this recording

"Nicholas Harnoncourt's venture into the late 19th-century repertory tends to provoke ideologically-motivated reactions, either for or against, "historically-informed" performance practice. I think it's more rewarding to approach his outstanding recording of the Bruckner 7th symphony, done with the Vienna Philharmonic, as stemming from a strong interpretive vision of the 7th, one that is allied to some of the performance practices that Harnoncourt has advocated in his career."

Nikolaus Harnoncourt presents his reading of “La Finta giardiniera”, a long-forgotten wonderfully tragicomic opera by the young Mozart. Almost a quarter of a century ago Harnoncourt presented his reading of the rediscovered work on CD, but in this version from the Zurich Opera, the great Mozart magician conducted a staged production for the first time, making the premiere an event in itself.

Filmed in the architectural splendour of Graz's Gothic-Baroque cathedral, leading Bach authority Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts the famed Tölz Boys Choir and his Vienna Concentus Musicus, playing on period instruments, in the most dramatic of all Passion settings. "In this performance we have attempted to realize Bach's wishes in the most authentic manner possible" (Nikolaus Harnoncourt). "A unique occasion" (Kurier).