MOZART: SERENADES, HORN CONCER

EDUARDO MATA EDITION VOL 1 - M

Rosenbaum Plays Mozart

This collaboration between H�risson and the Mus�e de la Musique (Paris) is an opportunity to hear the precious pianoforte Gr�bner (1791), the newest addition to museum's collection, recorded here for the first time! The label also has the pleasure of opening a new collaboration with violinist David Grimal, who presents his first recording on period instruments. Mathieu Dupouy always looks for a perfect match between repertoire and instrument, and has so recorded for H�risson at the harpsichord (Scarlatti), the fortepiano (Haydn), the clavichord (C.P.E. Bach), and the organ (Couperin).

This is the definitive collection of Charles Mackerras’s Mozart recordings for Linn, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Comprising nine symphonies plus the Requiem, this box set exemplifies why Mackerras was acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest Mozartians and the SCO is internationally recognized as one of the world’s finest chamber orchestras. Mackerras’s recording of Mozart’s four late symphonies (Nos. 38-41) won multiple awards: the 2009 Classical BRITs Critics’ Award and the 2009BBC Music Magazine Disc of the Year and Orchestral Awards, whilst his recording of symphonies Nos. 29, 31 (‘Paris’), 32, 35 (‘Haffner’) & 36 (‘Linz’) was named Symphonic Recording of the Year at the 2011 ECHO Klassik Awards. Completing the collection is Mackerras’s recording of the Mozart Requiem, boasting stellar soloists led by soprano Susan Gritton and mezzo Catherine Wyn-Rogers. The score, prepared by the renowned American academic Robert Levin, aims for a more historically authentic performance of the choral masterpiece. It was named a benchmark recording by BBC Music Magazine amongst other accolades. This is a wonderful celebration of the SCO’s Conductor Laureate on the tenth anniversary of his death.

Awards Won o Critics' Award 2009. Classical BRIT Awards. o Disc of the Year Award 2009. BBC Music Magazine o Orchestral Award 2009. BBC Music Magazine o Symphonic Works Award 2009. Midem Classical Awards o Choc de l'année 2008. Le Monde de la Musique Commendations o Best Classical Record of 2008. The Sunday Times o Best Classical Record of 2008. HMV Choice o A disc of the year. BBC Radio 3's CD Review o A disc of the year. BBC Radio 4's Front Row o A disc of the year. Classic FM's The New CD Show o Gramophone Recommended. Gramophone o Classical CD of the Week. The Sunday Times o Orchestral Disc of the Month. BBC Music Magazine o Album of the Month. HiFi News This eagerly anticipated addition to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra series sees Mozart specialist Sir Charles Mackerras deliver a truly memorable recording of Mozart's four last symphonies. Sir Charles's fruitful partnership with the SCO has been evident since their highly successful recording of 'Mozart Requiem' (CKD211) was received to side critical acclaim in 2003. Their special relationship and musical synchronicity makes 'Mozart Symphonies Nos. 38-41' equally exhilarating. The SCO's previous Mozart recordings have been critically acclaimed: 'Mozart Serenades' and 'Mozart Wind Concertos' each consistently received four and five star reviews and BBC Music Magazine named Sir Charles Mackerras's 'Mozart Requiem' a 'benchmark recording' in January 2003.

Classical Music

The tour starts in Northern Italy, in Ravenna, once the capital of the Roman Emperor Honorius, who moved there from Milan with his court in C.E. 402. The place is famous for it's mosaics. The tour also takes US to Faenza, famous for it's majolica ware, known as faience, and to the great Basilica of San Marco in Venice and it's Carnival. The music for this tour of Italy is by Mozart and includes his two Flute Concertos, written for a patron during a visit to Mannheim in 1777-78.

Mozart: Requiem

DIE HOCHZEIT DES FIGARO(GA)

Drawn from the worldwide catalog holdings of Sony Classical, which includes both the Columbia/CBS and RCA Victor label imprints, the SONY Classical Originals, SONY Classical Masters Singles and Box Sets, and SONY Opera House series offer an extensive selection of highly desirable and collectible EU (Germany) pressed import editions, smartly designed and graphically pleasing, featuring the most sought-after recordings by the world's preeminent, legendary artists both past and present, with many titles newly re-mastered in 24bit High Resolution Audio.

The G minor Quartet is one of the most fervently passionate of all Mozart’s chamber masterpieces – so much so that the publisher who commissioned a set of three piano quartets was utterly taken aback by the uncompromising style of this first work in the series, and Mozart agreed to release him from the remainder of his contract. By that time he had already composed the more genial E flat major Quartet, but he never completed the set. What is immediately striking about these new performances is how stylish they are, with Emanuel Ax providing discreet ornamentation for the repeats, as well as a tasteful cadenza leading into the return of the rondo theme in the finale of K478. But they are much more than that: what they reflect above all is a real joy in music-making and a willingness to allow the music its full expressive range. At first, I regretted the lack of the long second repeat in the opening movement of the G minor quartet – one of Mozart’s great second-half repeats – but the playing generates such intensity that a further hearing would have been emotionally draining. No Mozart lover should miss this.

Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- Misha Donat, BBC Music Magazine

"The quartets Nos. 21, 22, and 23 were composed by Mozart with the hope of a dedication to King William of Prussia. The king was a cellist, and Mozart lovingly favors the cello in these quartets of supreme craftsmanship." - Herbert Russcol

[Quartet No. 23 in F Major, K. 590] "...makes an exciting culmination to them all, in Mozart's most mature handling of the style...The composer ends his adventures in the string quartet at the very top of his bent." - John Burk, Mozart and his Music

"Though CBS in its latter days of independence reissued the Juilliard Quartet’s recordings of the last Schubert String Quartets on a mid-price 2-CD set, re-reissued by Sony on SB2K89978, neither they nor their present owners Sony/BMG ever released these Mozart recordings on CD, to the best of my knowledge, perhaps because there is such strong competition in the Mozart, not least from the Quartetto Italiano and Amadeus Quartet in recordings of much the same vintage. With those stylish Italian recordings currently unavailable, however, either as part of their 8-CD collection of all the Mozart Quartets, singly, or on Philips Duo, except as downloads or from ArkivMusic, and the Amadeus as a box set only, it makes excellent sense to reissue the Juilliard recordings...If you are looking for a 2-CD set of the last four quartets, the ArkivMusik reissue of the Juilliards makes an obvious recommendation. There’s a detailed booklet with some useful analyses of the music and the recording has worn well." -- MusicWeb International

When a pianist extraordinaire still has a lot to say far beyond retirement age, he goes on extensive tours in order to move people emotionally with his work and music. But when Paul Badura-Skoda undertakes the exertions of undergoing long recording sessions to record on three CDs sonatas and other piano works by W. A. Mozart on one of the fortepianos in his collection, then that is a completely different thing. For that means that the matter is close to his heart, and we can be curious to hear how ‘his’ Mozart has ‘matured’ with him over the years. This first CD features the Sonata facile, KV 545 and the Sonatas KV 330 and 331. Winning first prize in the Austrian Music Competition in 1947 meant the beginning of Paul Badura-Skoda’s career. Since 1949, he has performed with major conductors such as Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan. Major tours as a soloist followed. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, he could be heard in all the parts of the world. The focus of his extensive repertoire (he has made more than 200 recordings) is on works by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.

After demonstrating their ‘innate love and understanding of Haydn’s music in performances of the expected vivacity and insight’ (BBC Music), Bavouzet and Takacs-Nagy, the latter conducting his Manchester Camerata, now explore Mozart’s extraordinary prolific year 1784 in this new series. Two of the six concertos that year are heard here, each unusual for having been written by Mozart for another pianist and for featuring a central Andante, instead of the more common Adagio. This is a unique version that, as Bavouzet stresses in his booklet note, ‘although played unequivocally on modern instruments, contrasts with those versions made not so very long ago, which used a large orchestra incorporating sixteen violins and eight double-basses.’ He adds: ‘a versions which also will take into account a number of performing practices current in Mozart’s time, such as the use of a solo quartet to accompany certain well-defined passages in which the piano is predominant. A version which in one way or another aims to link tradition and modernity.’

REVIEWS:

The mantra all performers must repeat over and over again when recording something which is already very well represented on disc is, “what am I bringing to it which is new and distinctive?” For Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, the answer in this case is simple. He is bringing to Mozart’s G major Concerto, K453, cadenzas of such startling originality and invention that they flavour the entire disc.

Moving off message and into the realms of Ravel, Stravinsky and near-jazz, Bavouzet’s cadenzas are an astonishing departure from Mozart’s own (which are usefully included on the disc as supplementary tracks) and one which, it might be thought, would stretch credulity beyond reasonable limits. But the amazing thing is, you listen to Mozart and enjoy the lovely quality of the playing as well as Gábor Takács-Nagy’s delightfully personable readings, and find yourself wandering off into Bavouzet’s own fantastic dream-world without even knowing it. Suddenly you are in the chromatic morasses of neo-Classical Stravinsky and wonder how on earth you got there. Next, you find yourself seamlessly transported back into the presence of Mozart and, again, wonder whether the strange aberration you have just experienced is real or imaginary. So beautifully integrated are these extraordinary cadenzas into the performance that their departure from the standard idiom is barely perceptible. Potential stylistic gulfs are bridged so easily that it is difficult to object to the musical chasm which lies between them.

There are two clear opinions. The first is that cadenzas need to maintain the stylistic idiom of the concerto, while the other is that cadenzas originally opened the door for different stylistic viewpoints to emerge. I retain a critic’s impartiality on the matter, but am as near convinced by Bavouzet as can be. These cadenzas not only add a lovely measure of spice and a tantalizing glimpse of the present, but they bring about a freshness and vitality to the concertos which causes us to listen to it as if through new ears.

Beyond the novelty of the cadenzas in the G major Concerto, these performances would be well worth having on disc on their own terms. Gábor Takács-Nagy is a conductor whose approach exudes not just good cheer and a lovely sense of joy in the music, but have an almost spiritually-charged character; to use one of his own favourite words when describing musical optimism, these are moments of pure “alleluya”. Bavouzet is in total accord with this approach, and the fluency and elegance of this playing is the perfect match to the Manchester Camerata’s witty and at times effervescent playing.

With a fine recorded sound, this is a recording of two popular Mozart concertos which should be in everyone’s possession.

-- MusicWeb International