The scion of a Dutch family deeply involved in the historically informed performance movement for the past 70 years, Sigiswald Kuijken made his name as a violinist. The combination of scholarly diligence, performing flair and unwavering determination – ‘I’ve always been fanatical about doing things the way they were done in their day,’ as he remarked in an interview – produced recordings of solo, chamber and concerted Bach as deeply considered as they were imbued with rhythmic vitality.

In 1972 he gathered like-minded friends and colleagues to form La Petite Bande as a recording ensemble; led from the first desk by Kuijken himself, the ensemble quickly gained renown through performances and tours, and their repertoire evolved naturally over time until they began a project to record Mozart’s major operas in 1992 with Don Giovanni.

Kuijken’s approach was characteristically definitive: ‘These pieces are immortal, they don’t need arranging. If you say you’re playing Don Giovanni and it’s a piece of modern theatre with music by Mozart, it’s not the same piece.’ Thus he made no apologies for casting singers who were often young, and more experienced in early-music idioms than in treading the boards of the world’s great opera houses; or for putting them in stagings which Mozart and da Ponte would have recognized. At the same time, Kuijken always sought to uncover the spiritual dimension of music that explores the farthest reaches of human emotion. ‘There is something strange that Bach shares with Mozart,’ he said. ‘It appears that their music has a deeper source. I know it’s a romantic idea to say that, but I’m not ashamed to do so and in fact I feel it increasingly.’ Critics responded warmly from the beginning to this ‘informed Romanticism’, which was caught on the wing in live recordings. The booklet to this set contains detailed synopses of each opera.

There is certainly blood aplenty in these bleeding chunks. As Salome kisses the mouth of Jokanaan, the lunar beauty at the core of Jane Eaglen’s dramatic lyric soprano reminds us not only of the chilling purity of Salome’s corruption, but of just what we are missing in hearing Eaglen live so little in Britain.

The partnership of Eaglen and the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta is at its strongest in the Richard Strauss tracks of this Mozart and Strauss compilation. The orchestra’s superbly balanced wind soloists create dark shadows for Guntram’s Freihild, as she reflects within them, at first perplexed and then, in unflaggingly focused voice, thankful for her love for the Minnesinger – and for the glory of her top B. If Ariadne’s distraction is captured rather less convincingly, then the sustained rapture of Die Aegyptische Helena’s “Zweite Brautnacht!” draws the full effulgence from Eaglen’s golden soprano in what seems to be one breathless sentence.

The five Mozart arias here remind us just what a formidable Mozartian Eaglen is; and one only wishes that Mehta were her equal in this respect. I found myself constantly longing for a livelier orchestral presence, warmer phrasing, more discriminating support. Eaglen’s bleached tone in Donna Anna’s “Non mi dir” gives way to some considerable tension in the florid, high-lying passages, and the matter-of-fact, even peremptory accompaniment of “Or sai chi l’onore” doesn’t help her in what becomes a somewhat shrill revelation.

Eaglen’s own skills at pacing and charging with emotion Electra’s passages of accompanied recitative make for real momentum, lit by a bright platinum gleam in the voice in “Oh smania! ... D’Oreste, d’Aiace”; and her instinctive phrasing gives eloquent voice to Electra’s more demure moments in “Idol mio”.'

-- Hilary Finch, Gramophone [6/1998]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was famous from an early age as a pianist, utilizing the sophisticated Viennese instruments that were developed from the 1770's by builders such as Anton Walter and Andreas Stein. On this companion album to MO0409, distinguished fortepianist, Trudelies Leonhardt, presents another programme of Mozart's solo sonatas from Salzburg, Mannheim and Vienna, as well as the Rondo in D major, K. 485 and the sublime Adagio in B minor, K. 540. Leonhardt performs ona fortepiano built by Paul McNulty, a replica of an instrument by Mozart's favorite maker, Anton Walter.

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Mozart’s third venture into the “opera seria” genre, demolished its traditional boundaries to open the way to lyric drama. Blending youthful earnestness with mature mastery, Mozart uses - while profoundly changing - the elements of a genre based on arias that come one after another with no real concern for dramatic progression. The importance and expressive power of the choruses, influenced by the operatic reforms of Gluck, foreshadows The Magic Flute. Idomeneo is often regarded as Mozart’s first masterpiece for the opera house. After the fall of Troy, King Idomeneo can finally dream of returning to his homeland after a long absence, during which his son Idamante ensured the continuity of his reign and guarded Trojan prisoners, including Ilia, King Priam’s daughter. To escape from a terrible storm that is keeping him from reaching Crete, Idomeneo promises Neptune to sacrifice the first living being he encounters upon landing. Unfortunately, it is his own son who greets him in his native land. By offering her own life in exchange for that of Idamante, whom she loves and who loves her, Illia manages to get Neptune to yield and to deliver Idomeneo from his fateful vow. Robert Carsen’s “politically poetic staging” (Opera News), set in present-day Crete, features a first-rate cast including Eric Cutler as Idomeneo, David Portillo as Idamante, Anett Fritsch, as Ilia, Eleonora Buratto, as Elettra, and Benjamin Hulett as Arbace.

Although being technically very different instruments, we are convinced that the romantic guitar and the fortepiano share the same aesthetics. This was proven to us for the first time when we finally recorded our Schubert album ‘A Sentimental Moment’ in 2018, with piano works arranged for our Viennese guitars. After this, it was natural for us to turn to a composer who has fired more interest than anyone else: Mozart. We do hope that these arrangements of Mozart’s piano sonatas can suggest how he might have expressed his genius on our instrument. The shorter duration of the notes, as well as the delicacy and richness of colors found in the sound world of the guitar, are quite close to those of the late 18th Century fortepianos that Mozart would have known, while the dynamic range of the guitar would be very much at home in the salons and smaller concert venues of that time. Listening to the sonatas played on two guitars might be exotic, but the plucked sound fits in with the family of keyboard instruments.

The piano plays a central role in Mozart's compositional work. Again and again he explored new possibilities, such as the transfer of instrumental effects of the Mannheim School or the polyphonic character in later piano works. Also, or rather especially, in Amy Lin's puristic interpretation, Mozart's entire wealth of ideas is revealed. Pianist Amy Lin was born in Taiwan, and immigrated to the United States with her family as a youngster. She began studying the piano at the age of five, dividing her time between two passions: music and mathematics. Thanks to a merit scholarship in mathematics, she attended The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore for a bachelor’s degree in math while also studying piano with Enrique Graf at the Peabody Institute. There, she met the renowned pianist Leon Fleisher, and attended his weekly masterclasses for three years. After earning her math degree, she entered the Peabody Conservatory and spent the next ten years working intensively with Fleisher, receiving a Master’s degree and Artist Diploma. As a direct descendant from the “Beethoven school” (through Czerny, Leschetizky, Schnabel and Fleisher), Amy Lin takes special interests in the music of Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven. In order to further her understanding of the great German traditions, she spent two years in Germany, where she worked with pianist Gerhard Oppitz at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich and was awarded the highest honor, the Meisterklassendiplom. Other precious musical mentors have included Leonard Shure, Fou Ts’ong, and Krystian Zimerman.

Olga Pashchenko is one of today’s most versatile keyboard players. Equally at home on the fortepiano, the harpsichord, the organ and the modern piano, she radiates extraordinary virtuosity and passion. Her discography has hitherto enabled her to explore the music of Beethoven, her great passion, but also that of Dussek and Mendelssohn among others. A key figure was missing until now: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. That omission has now been repaired with this recording of his Piano Concertos nos. 9 and 17, written in 1777 and 1784. This initial collaboration with the ensemble Il Gardellino, founded more than thirty years ago by the oboist Marcel Ponseele and the flautist Jan De Winne, is scheduled to continue with other Mozart concertos in the next few years.

On this release, the tenth volume in the Idil Biret Concerto Edition, Idil Biret performs W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 21 and 22 alongside the Bursa Regional State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ender Sakpinar. ‘Miss Biret was soloist in an entrancing performance of Mozart’s concerto K. 482 with the Manchester Hallé Orchestra conducted by Mlle Nadia Boulanger. The variety of her playing its finely-shaded gradations and brilliant but never mechanical figurations, revealed her as already a remarkable artist. Not for many hears has a Hallé audience heard such perfectly balanced Mozart playing... No words can describe the wondrous finale, with its mixture of gaiety and anguish. This was a performance in which every note counted for its full value.’ (DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK) 1963) ‘I recently returned from a five week conducting tour...In Turkey Idil Biret was my soloist in a Mozart Concerto (K. 595). What a fine artist she is.’ (From a letter of AARON COPLAND to Mlle Nadia Boulanger (USA) 1973)

A classic story of love under the microscope is given a contemporary perspective in this performance of Mozart’s “school for lovers”. Così fan tutte is a compassionate examination of young love, full of wit and wonderful music which ensure its lasting popularity. Così fan tutte was Mozart’s final collaboration with the Italian librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, and Jonathan Miller’s production, created for The Royal Opera, brings out the timelessness of this exploration of the human condition. Jonathan Miller’s Royal Opera production of Cosi fan tutte was a staple of the repertory for nearly twenty years. He died in 2019.

OPERA & CONCERT ARIAS

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Also available on standard DVD

Mozart wrote La finta giardiniera in 1775 when he was 18 years old. It was his first staged buffo opera and centres on the lovers at the heart of the action, Sandrina – the pretend garden-girl of the title – and Belfiore. With few ensembles, Mozart channels his most intense and expressive music into arias which demonstrate a masterful ability to convey the full range of tenderness and passion. Originally staged at Glyndebourne in 2014 by Frederic Wake-Walker, this 2018 revival from La Scala is performed on period instruments with a strong cast and expertly conducted with exuberance and charm by Diego Fasolis.

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“He was out to create something ‘unheard-of’,” observed conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt beforehand. And true to form: What the conductor had offer as he commenced his Mozart/Da Ponte cycle in the Theater an der Wien was something we “had never before heard like this” (Kurier). Nikolaus Harnoncourt, “master” of period performance practice, realized a project that had long been one of his dearest wishes: for the first time, he and his “original-sound orchestra” Concentus Musicus and his personal choice of singers were presenting the complete Mozart/Da Ponte cycle and harvesting the fruits of his Mozart research – an “enthusiastically acclaimed cycle!” (news.at). During an intensive phase of rehearsal and preparation, he was in search of a Mozart hermeneutic resting on historical sources and yet anchored in our own time, in order to stage the whole Da Ponte “trilogy” – Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte – in a matter of a mere six weeks. “The culmination of Harnoncourt’s involvement with [Mozart’s Da Ponte operas] – “A Mozart drawn from historical sources and yet anchored in our own time.” (Die Presse)

*** This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD or HD DVD players. ***

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The unforgettable "masterful use of light and silhouettes" (Milano Post) with which Giorgio Strehler interpreted the charm of Mozart’s Singspiel was conceived for the Salzburg Festival, where it was staged in 1965 under the baton of then 29 year old Zubin Mehta, and then regularly revived at La Scala from 1972 onwards. At twenty years since the death of the great director, who from 1951 staged some by-now legendary operas at La Scala, Teatro alla Scala proposed anew this celebrated staging and called to the podium the man who conducted it the first time – Zubin Mehta. "Extraordinary, a wonder …" (Corriere Della Sera). The stage set with magnificent palace architecture and a sea view at centre is a veritable feast for the eyes, which is equally true for the elaborately and lovingly designed costumes. The viewer feels like he‘s being transported into the oriental aura. The fact that the current performance is conducted by Maestro Zubin Mehta, now over 80 years old, builds a bridge to Strehler‘s Salzburg production, which dates back more than half a century, and at the same time provides a touching detail of this timelessly monumental performance.

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REVIEW:

This new release gives Zubin Mehta the honour of having four commercial recordings of Mozart’s Turkish opera. There is a CD of his 1965 Salzburg performance (Orfeo C392952I). VAI issued a video of the 1967 Salzburg revival (DVDVAI4521), and there is a rather colourful 2002 production from Florence (review). One might almost think that this is the opera that Maestro Mehta is most identified with. I suspect that many opera lovers would think first of his recordings Turandot with Pavarotti and Sutherland and Il Trovatore with Domingo and Price.

Mehta’s association with Entführung was first given international prominence at the 1965 Salzburg Festival in a brand-new production by Giorgio Strehler. He was the 32-year-old hotshot maestro of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, seen as a rising star throughout the world. At the time of this 2017 performance he was 84, and had a long and varied career behind him. His direction on this evening is mellow and flowing. A great deal of consideration is given to the singers in their florid arias. His reading has warmth and charm, which I often find lacking in revivals of this opera. In comparison, the 1965 Entführung on CD has somewhat more excitement and edge to the reading. Yet throughout Mehta’s tempi have altered only slightly, and always there is warmth and care.

Mauro Peter as Belmonte has an elegant and burnished tenor sound, with something of a baritonal quality to his tone. His is a committed and impassioned portrayal which does not quite outshine some of his predecessors in the role. His stage presence is quite natural, and makes for a very appealing portrayal.

Lenneke Ruiten gives a tour-de-force reading of Konstanze. Her woodwind-like tone has grown in size since her Pentatone recording of Mozart arias in 2009 (PTC5186376). Her music is presented in a grand manner, with passionate expression. She is very impressive in executing the difficult coloratura roulades. I would go as far as stating that her assumption of Konstanze stands among the finest ever recorded. We can only be grateful that her performance was captured at the peak of her artistry. She also looks quite lovely, and her acting is on a level similar to her singing.

Maximillian Schmitt as Pedrillo has a very enthusiastic and charming stage presence. That helps him dispatch much of the humourous action that is relegated to Pedrillo; in this he does not disappoint. Vocally, he has an impressive-sounding top range for “Frisch zum Kampfe”, but tonal unsteadiness tends to creep into the mid- and low registers of his voice.

Sabine Devielhe is an adorable Blonde. Her natural stage presence shines through the soubrette traditions of this role. Her voice is diamond-bright, and she gives us an incredibly winning version of “Welche Wonne welche lust”.

Tobias Kehrer gives an adorable portrayal of Osmin. In this production he is more of a buffo rather than a threatening presence. This is matched by his vocal means of a rather soft-grained sound combined with a deeper, more impressive low range. Like many who have sung Osmin, he is challenged by the coloratura sections of “O wie will ich triumphieren”.

This production is a new staging of the 1965 Giorgio Strehler production for Salzburg. It was restaged by Mattia Testi in honour of the 20th anniversary of Strehler’s death. Strehler was a producer whose work in opera has become something of a legend over the years. Early in his carreer, he discovered the technique of Chiaroscuro lighting which was used in Renaissance paintings and early silent films. The complex lighting structure makes the rear of the stage more brightly lit than the front. On film, it can produce some truly wonderful cinematic images. It also has the ability to do this on stage but sadly in live performance it does not register well for home viewing. Even the exacting standards of today’s HD cameras are not up to the challenge of conveying the action which occur in the shadows at the front of the stage. Strehler’s Entführung production used this effect heavily.

In much of his later stage work, Strehler toned down the degree of use, as DVDs of his Nozze di Figaro from Paris and Don Giovanni from La Scala demonstrate. It is rather a pity that so much of the singing occurs in the dark part of the stage, which leaves us with soloists who are seen only in silhouette. In the opera house the audience are partly able to make out some of the singers’ expressions but that is not the case for home viewing. This mars what is in effect a very charming staging of Mozart’s opera. There are a few truly inspired moments where the shadow effect actually enhances the story, like when Pedrillo is tempting Osmin with the Cypriot wine. The imagery here is truly unforgettable for a moment that normally paces without much notice. The sets and costumes are spare but quite beautiful and elegant. Sound and picture quality of this Blu-ray are superlative, aside from the above-noted comments. Ultimately, while I am grateful to have this recording, the lighting issue will prevent it from being anyone’s first choice for this opera. Even so, the particularly fine singing of the female leads and Mehta’s warm and winning reading of the score should absolutely be heard.

– MusicWeb International (Mike Parr)

“He was out to create something ‘unheard-of’,” observed conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt beforehand. And true to form: What the conductor had to offer as he commenced his Mozart/Da Ponte cycle in the Theater an der Wien was something we “had never before heard like this” (Kurier). Nikolaus Harnoncourt, “master” of period performance practice, realized a project that had long been one of his dearest wishes: for the first time, he and his “original-sound orchestra” Concentus Musicus and his personal choice of singers were presenting the complete Mozart/Da Ponte cycle and harvesting the fruits of his Mozart research – an “enthusiastically acclaimed cycle!” (news.at). During an intensive phase of rehearsal and preparation, he was in search of a Mozart hermeneutic resting on historical sources and yet anchored in our own time, in order to stage the whole Da Ponte “trilogy” – Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte – in a matter of a mere six weeks. “The culmination of Harnoncourt’s involvement with [Mozart’s Da Ponte operas] – A Mozart drawn from historical sources and yet anchored in our own time.” (Die Presse)