The complete performance of "Magic Flute" from which these excerpts were taken are available as Naxos 8-660030/1.

Classical Music

From the mythological setting of Idomeneo via the sparkling wit of Le nozze di Figaro and powerful tragicomedy of Don Giovanni to the fantastical workings of the late Singspiel Die Zauberflöte, Mozart’s mature operas stand among the greatest achievements of Western art, dramas that illuminate the composer’s creativity as a whole and which stood out in their own time for the new level of characterisation, wit and lessons on life and humanity they brought to the musical stage. Featuring recordings made during the last ten years from some of the world’s leading opera houses, this collection offers an acclaimed series of productions that present consummate interpretations of Mozart’s scores through striking set designs and peerless singing, paying homage to a group of masterpieces which are just as relevant today as when they were first performed.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
THE GREAT OPERAS
(13-DVD Box Set)

Idomeneo


Idomeneo - Ramón Vargas
Idamante - Magdalena Kožená
Ilia - Ekaterina Siurina
Elettra - Anja Harteros
Arbace - Jeffrey Francis


Salzburg Bach Chor
(chorus master: Alois Glassner)
Camerata Salzburg
Roger Norrington, conductor


Karl-Ernst Hermann, stage director, set and costume designer
Ursel Herman, stage director


Recorded live from the Salzburg Festival, 2006


  Die Entführung aus dem Serail


Konstanze - Laura Aikin
Belmonte - Edgaras Montvidas
Osmin - Kurt Rydl
Blonde - Mojca Erdmann
Pedrillo - Michael Smallwood
Bassa Selim - Steven Van Watermeulen


Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera
The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra
Constantinos Carydis, conductor


Johan Simons, stage director


Recorded live at Het Musiektheater, Amsterdam on 2, 7 and 19 February 2008

Le nozze di Figaro


Il Conte di Almaviva - Peter Mattei
La Contessa di Alamviva - Christiane Oelze
Susanna - Heidi Grant Murphy
Figaro - Lorenzo Regazzo
Cherubino - Christine Schäfer
Marcellina - Helene Schneiderman
Bartolo - Roland Bracht
Don Basilio - Burkhard Ulrich
Don Curzio - Eberhard Francesco Lorenz
Barbarina - Cassandre Berthon
Antonio - Frederic Caton


Paris National Opera Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Peter Burian)
Sylvain Cambreling, conductor


Christoph Marthaler, stage director
Anna Viebrock, set and costume designer
Olaf Winter, lighting designer
Thomas Stache, choreographer


Recorded live at the Palais Garnier, Paris, 2006

Don Giovanni


Don Giovanni - Carlos Álvarez
Commendatore - Alfred Reiter
Donna Anna - María Bayo
Don Ottavio - José Bros
Donna Elvira - Sonia Ganassi
Leporello - Lorenzo Regazzo
Masetto - José Antonio López
Zerlina - María José Moreno


Madrid Teatro Real Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Jordi Casas Bayer)
Victor Pablo Pérez, conductor


Lluis Pasqual, stage director
Ezio Frigerio, set designer
Franca Squarciapino, costume designer
Wolfgang von Zoubek, lighting designer
Nuria Castejón, choreographer


Recorded live at the Teatro Real de Madrid, 8, 10 and 12 October 2005

Cosi fan tutte


Ferrando - Topi Lehtipuu
Guglielmo - Luca Pisaroni
Don Alfonso - Nicolas Rivenq
Fiordiligi - Miah Persson
Dorabella - Anke Vondung
Despina - Ainhoa Garmendia


The Glyndebourne Chorus
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Iván Fischer , Conductor


Nicholas Hytner, Stage Director


Recorded live at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in June and July 2006

La Clemenza di Tito


Sesto - Susan Graham
Annio - Hannah Esther Minutillo
Vitellia - Catherine Naglestad
Servilia - Ekaterina Siurina
Publio - Roland Bracht
Tito - Christoph Prégardien


Paris National Opera Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Peter Burian)
Sylvain Cambreling, conductor


Ursel Herrmann, stage director
Karl-Ernst Herrmann, stage director


Recorded live at the Palais Garnier, Paris, May and June 2005

Die Zauberflöte


Sarastro - Günther Groissböck
Tamino - Saimir Pirgu
Queen of the Night - Albina Shagimuratova
Pamina - Genia Kühmeier
Papagena - Ailish Tynan
Papageno - Alex Esposito
Monostatos - Peter Bronder


Milan La Scala Chorus and Orchestra
Roland Böer, conductor


William Kentridge, stage director


Recorded live at La Teatro alla Scala, 20 March 2011


Bonus:
- Overview of The Magic Flute
- Illustrated synopsis

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Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian + Chinese (Idomeneo) / Dutch (Serail)
Running time: 24 hours 20 mins
No. of DVDs: 13

Mozart’s string quartets are among the best of the genre, and are equal to his more famous quartets in every way. These works have been recorded in their entirety for this release by the Auryn Quartet, with Nobuko Imai joining. Auryn Quartet is Matthias Linenfelder, Jens Oppermann, Stewart Eaton, and Andreas Arndt. They believe recording these works is the summit of chamber music repertoire.

Classical Music

Mozart’s first three full-fledged piano trios were composed in his most prolific period: in the summer and autumn of 1786. At that time he had spent five years in Vienna, and the aristocratic circles were beginning to recognize his extraordinary genius. He gave solo piano recitals, worked as a conductor on a regular basis, rehearsed his own compositions, received private students, and was involved in the social life of the imperial capital. Two years later Mozart added three new grandiose piano trios to the repertory of the chamber music genre. They are preceded by two pieces: the first is one of the composer’s early chamber works, followed by a piece compiled by Abbé Stadler from various musical fragments and entitled Three movements for piano trio. Pianist Marta Gulyas holds the Liszt Prize, and has been a teacher at the Liszt Academy since 1978 and a professor at the Madrid Royal Conservatory since 1991. Two time MIDEM award-winner violinist Vilmos Szabadi works as an associate professor at the Liszt Academy of Music as the Head of Violin Department. As a leading violoncellist of his generation Csaba Onczay has been awarded several prestigious prizes including the Liszt Prize, the Meritorious Artist Award, and the Kossuth Prize. He currently teaches at the Liszt Academy as a professor emeritus. Viola player Mate Szucs performs with renowned musicians and ensembles across the world, and has taught viola at the Karajan Academy of the orchestra since 2013. He has been teaching at the Liszt Academy since 2015.

The exhilaration and sense of discovery is utterly infectious.” — International Record Review

“These are performances of enormous drama, delicacy, and zest played with keen attention to expressive and textural nuances.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer

This all-Mozart recording leads with the composer’s darkest Symphony, No. 40 in G minor. American soprano Amanda Forsythe joins the group in a dramatic recitative and virtuoso aria from Lucio Silla, and the disc includes the Ballet Music from Idomeneo, a festive and rarely-heard suite from the last great work in the opera seria tradition. Rounding out the set are four lively and entertaining Contradances.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.



MOZART Symphonies: No. 22; No. 23; No. 24; No. 25; No. 27 • Adam Fischer, cond; Danish Natl CO • dacapo 6.220542 (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 65:19)


It must have been one heck of a year for Mozart in 1773. All of a sudden, without any sort of precursor or warning of any type, this miracle we shamelessly call the “Little” G-Minor, Symphony No. 25, emerges. What followed was a return to normalcy again, though there would be hints of this turbulence and toil in some other of the composer’s work, in a rather more full fashion and aching with profundities. But none of this stems the shock of the piece; what in the world was happening to cause such an unparalleled explosion of passion and Sturm und Drang?


As usual, Mozart’s letters provide us with few clues. The man seems completely divorced in day-to-day temperament from the goings-on in his music. The only things that may suggest a hint as to this experimental piece are the facts that he had been studying the music of Haydn (who after all, brought this style to a ravishing and stunning height) and that of Gluck, and that he did this on his trip to Vienna that same year. Obviously, he heard a lot of music, new music, and it left an impact. But Mozart was never one to directly imitate but always instead assimilate, and he took what he was hearing, returned to Salzburg, and put it to use. What struck him were no doubt the harsh syncopations, wide melodic leaps, curiously brash tremolos, and feverish intensity of the music he stumbled on. But even here we have something a little different: Haydn himself always provided a sense of respite within any single movement when writing in this style, but Mozart grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let up. From bar 1 to the very last of the first movement the intensity is gripping and unrelenting. The second movement allows only a chance to catch one’s breath—no sooner has the sweat started to dry than we are shoved into yet another movement of tragedy disguised as a Menuetto. The last movement takes us right back to where we started, and stubbornly refuses to allow any sense of resolution or a happy ending. This is storm and stress of a most merciless kind, and thank God for it.


This is Volume 7 of Adam Fischer’s new complete series for dacapo. It is shaping up quite nicely, especially now that we are heading into the biggies. Fischer’s venture into Haydn on Nimbus (now Brilliant Classics) some years ago has met with mixed reviews ever sense, most feeling that as the later symphonies approached the quality declined. This did not prevent Lynn René Bayley from sticking them into the Fanfare Hall of Fame in 32:2. I have mixed feelings about those readings, but as we are far from a perfect cycle of Haydn symphonies, I can certainly appreciate the effort. This current Mozart compendium is more mature in approach and has even a better chance of making the vaunted Hall one day.


I used to think that Fischer was just a victim of the infamous Nimbus reverb when recording his Haydn, but we still encounter a lot of that in the Danish Radio Concert Hall in Copenhagen, though tamed a bit. What is different in quality is the orchestra; the Danes playing as well as the Concertgebouw did for the Krips series on Philips, my favorite in the middle Mozart symphonies to this point. Those reading are a little larger in scope, the string playing unmatched, and Krips had a wonderful sense of these works like few others; but Fischer cannot be shortchanged, as his extraordinary dynamic contrasts, fervent string-snapping passion, and unanimity of ensemble show a group that is well rehearsed and well disciplined. The SACD sound only adds to the excitement and desirability of this release.


What of the other symphonies here? I made a big stink about No. 25 because of its unusual position in the Mozart canon, but the other works are played with equal alacrity and sense of style, modern, up-tempo, yet reasonable on all counts. To me, they are consistently underrated by those who think that early-to-middling Mozart symphonies are just pre-sonata-form exercises with training wheels. They are not established four-movement beauties as of yet, following instead the three-movement pre-Classical sinfonia form instead, but still gems of the rarest kind. When we get to the higher 20s and early 30s numbers, it will be easier to make some comparisons with conductors like Szell and Klemperer, but for now Fischer is topping the charts and may well stay there when all is said and done.


FANFARE: Steven E. Ritter

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD set playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Symphonic Recording of the Year - 2011 ECHO Klassik Awards

Sir Charles Mackerras and his Scottish players are working backwards through Mozart's symphonies. This second volume follows their acclaimed (and award-winning) set of the last four symphonies with a group of works mainly from the latter part of his Salzburg period along with two he composed following his relocation to Vienna. Is another complete edition planned? It would be Sir Charles's second, following his survey with the Prague Chamber Orchestra (Telarc). There are some gaps here: Symphonies Nos 33 and 34, for example, and Nos 28 and 30 which both post-dated No 29. Perhaps they'll appear on Vol 3 with the "Little" G minor Symphony, K183.

These two discs display all the qualities identified by Lindsay Kemp in his review of the later symphonies (4/08). There's a clarity to the acoustic as recorded in Glasgow's City Halls, which Mackerras uses to his advantage, instinctively bringing out telling inner lines: listen especially for the ear-tweaking viola "stabs" in the second subject of No 29's first movement or the clattering horns at climaxes throughout the symphony. This work, surely Mozart's first symphonic miracle, is given added weight and import by Mackerras's decision to take all repeats, demonstrating especially that the fourth movement is far more than a mere chase finale. Claudio Abbado has also taken the period-informed modern-instrument approach with his hand-picked Orchestra Mozart (A/08; K201 is the one overlap with this selection) but I'm afraid I can't share my colleagues' enthusiasm for his joyless way with this music. The Paris is the least convincing of Mozart's later symphonies but Mackerras known (and shows) that there's plenty to be discovered beyond the French-pleasing special effects and brilliant orchestration. He also offers both slow movements: Mozart wrote a replacement to appease a cloth-eared audience who didn't recognise a genius when he was among them. More fool them, and alleluia that it's all the more Mozart for the rest of us. In fact there's so much to enjoy on these discs - armfuls of the humanity and wisdom referred to by LK, and vivacity aplenty too in the Haffner and Linz, advanced wayposts on the march towards the unparalleled mastery of the last three symphonies.

-- David Threasher, Gramophone

"Another offering from Sir Charles' Indian Summer; superb, vital accounts of five more important Mozart symphonies; the Scottish Chamber Orchestra doesn't play period instruments or eschew vibrato, but the hard sticks on the timpani give it an authentic flavour from a long-renowned Mozart specialist."
-- Peter Grahame Woolf, Musical Pointers [2/2010]

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The multi-award-winning partnership of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras is reunited in this second collection of Mozart Symphonies featuring Nos 29, 31 (Paris), 32, 35 (Haffner) & 36 (Linz). This much anticipated recording follows on from the astounding success of Mozart Symphonies 38 - 41 which resulted in him winning the Critics Award at the 2009 BRIT Awards and led to Mozart Symphonies 38-41 being named Disc of the Year at the 2009 BBC Music Magazine Awards.

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Performers:
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Sir Charles Mackerras - conductor

- This recording includes both versions of the 2nd movement of the Paris Symphony; unusually Sir Charles requested that the alternative version follows the original, rather than coming at the end of the album as an appendix.
- An obsessive musical researcher, Sir Charles merged his considerable knowledge of these works with scores and parts he has been editing from available sources for years in preparation for this recording.
- Sir Charles Mackerras has won widespread praise for his fresh, vibrant and youthful Mozart performances, which was named the classical recording of 2008 by the Sunday Times and HMV Choice. It also won a 2009 Midem Award for Symphonic Works and a Choc de l année Award from Le Monde de la Musique.
- This recording re-unites the award-winning team, including producer James Mallinson, who has just been nominated for a Grammy award.
- Sir Charles Mackerras, the SCO's Conductor Laureate, has produced numerous award-winning recordings, performed fifty times at the Edinburgh Festival and in 2005 was the first recipient of the Queens Medal for Music.
- The Orchestra has a large international fan base following recent performances

Track Listing:
1. Symphony No.29 in A major, K.201 i Allegro moderato
2. Symphony No.29 in A major, K.201 ii Andante
3. Symphony No.29 in A major, K.201 iii Menuetto
4. Symphony No.29 in A major, K.201 iv Allegro con spirito
5. Symphony No.31 in D major (Paris), K.297 i Allegro assai
6. Symphony No.31 in D major (Paris), K.297 ii Andantino
7. Symphony No.31 in D major (Paris), K.297 ii Andante (alternative 2nd movement)
8. Symphony No.31 in D major (Paris), K.297 iii Allegro
9. Symphony No.32 in G major, K.318 i Allegro spiritoso
10. Symphony No.32 in G major, K.318 ii Andante
11. Symphony No.35 in D major (Haffner), K.385 i Allegro con spirito
12. Symphony No.35 in D major (Haffner), K.385 ii Andante
13. Symphony No.35 in D major (Haffner), K.385 iii Menuetto
14. Symphony No.35 in D major (Haffner), K.385 iv Finale Presto
15. Symphony No.36 in C major (Linz), K.425 i Adagio ? allegro spiritoso
16. Symphony No.36 in C major (Linz), K.425 ii Adagio
17. Symphony No.36 in C major (Linz), K.425 iii Menuetto
18. Symphony No.36 in C major (Linz), K.425 iv Finale presto


Total Running Time:117 minutes

MOZART: Symphonies Nos. 36, 33 and 27

MOZART: Symphonies Nos. 1 - 5

The performances of the Northern Chamber Orchestra under Nicholas Ward are consistently stylish and engaged.

– Classic CD

Neat, polished performances from a fine English orchestra splendidly recorded.

– Gramophone

This selection is a Hybrid Multichannel Super Audio CD. The Stereo Hybrid SACD program can be played on any standard compact disc player. The DSD Surround and Stereo programs require an SACD player for playback.

"Krips's distinguished readings of Mozart’s three-movement symphonies in D with a world-class orchestra warrant special interest for collectors with multiple speaker SACD systems. The recording, part of an incomplete Mozart symphony cycle the Austrian maestro made in the 1970s for Philips, has been beautifully remastered by Pentatone. Close your eyes and the illusion of being in the Concertgebouw is unmistakable."

--Michael Fine, FANFARE