The Mozart Thread

To quote Tom Lehrer "It's a sobering thought that by the time Mozart was my age he'd been dead for three years." I know how he felt, though I not yet quite old enough to have outlived him, I did nearly choke on whatever it was I was drinking when I listened to the first symphony (K16) for the first time whilst reading in the booklet that he was but 8 years old when he wrote it.

Anyway, given it's the anniversary year, and we don't seem to have had a huge amount of Mozart (well, apart for Ian's thread), I thought I might try and alter that by mentioning some of my favourite works and interpreters.

We'll start with the concerti. I have a soft spot for the horn concerti which were, I think, the first mozart concerti that I ever owned. I should admit that I came to them via the the Flanders and Swan song which uses the finale from the K495. I have two recordings, the Koster/Tafelmusik/Weil reading and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and I think my preference is probably for the latter. I'm also rather fond of the clarinet concerto, though I only have the Orpheus's recording and wonder whether there are better out there.

Of course, no mention of the Mozart concerti would be complete without turning to the piano, particularly when I'm writing the thread, as I find the piano somehow the most satisfying instrument in a concerto. That said, my relationship with Mozart's didn't get off to a terribly good start. Following the penguin guide, I decided that I couldn't go wrong by buying Perahia's cycle (their rosettes having never steered me wrong in the past). That said, my only previous encounter with Perahia had been dreadful Edinburgh festival concert with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields where he proved (for me) why you shouldn't use a piano in a brandenburg concerto and that if, as a conductor, you're going to sing along with the music, you could at least do it in tune. But I digress. It's not that the Perahia cycle is bad, more I think that I had terribly high hopes for it and, as a result, it proved to be something of letdown and just left me a little unmoved much of the time. That said, I'm currently engaged in surveying all my Mozart piano concerti to decide which are going on my ipod (upon which space is fast becoming a premium) and his 4th and 5th have made it, so he isn't all bad. On of my favourites, though, technically not by Mozart, like all the first four, is the 2nd concerto (K39) from which I find the middle movement painfully beautiful, and Barenboim's reading with ECO particularly fine. Indeed, I would commend the whole of Barenboim's cycle, and indeed his latter, and much more refined (which has both its pros and cons) with the BPO, both of which can be had for an absolute song. Indeed, the Berlin cycle also has a rather wonderful bonus DVD with the concerti for two and 3 pianos with Solti and Schiff. Mozart's first really great piano concerto is probably the 9th (the Jeunehomme), which was recently featured on radio 3s building a library. There is rather fine mono account (though I don't know if it's available separately) with Kempff/Munchinger and the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester. Of more recent accounts Barenboim's with the BPO is rather fine, though I'm keenly awaiting the arrival of the Brendel/Mackerras/SCO version which I have on order. This latter team has so far done four discs, and I think, sadly, no more are planned, and I was much impressed when I saw the concert that followed the recording of their last effort (numbers 12 and 17). So far, however, I have only got their 20 and 24, both of which are very fine indeed. I have, somewhat deliberately, missed out a great many fine concerti, this is mainly because I want to steer clear of talking about the ones that I don't know so well, hopefully others will fill in.

I used to think that once you got below about about 25, the symphonies were rather a pale shadow of the later ones (indeed, there was recently a thread along those lines over on the radio 3 boards). Then, a few years ago, I picked up the Mackerras, Prague Chamber Orchestra complete cycle (on Telarc, most of which is, I think, available as individual discs too). - Incidentally, like most of my classical threads, with the exception of my Ring cycle and Mahler ones, this one is probably going to be a little heavy on Mackerras - Anyway, the vitality with which they play the early works is really quite something, indeed, the first few discs are among the most recommendable in the entire cycle, and now some of my favourite listening. That's not to detract from the later symphonies, which he plays very well too, but just that they lack something of the magic he brings to the youngest ones. I'm not going to mention all the fine symphonies, that would take too long and I will leave my glaring omissions to others to fill in (though I do feel a little bad skipping over 34-36). Instead, the only other ones I shall mention are two of my favourites, and the first two Mozart symphonies I ever owned: 40 and 41, the latter being one of my favourite symphonies of all time. There are doubtless many fine recordings of these two (including the rather nice Erich Kleiber/LPO 40th that I'm listening to as I write this) but I haven't heard anything, at least in the Jupiter, that touches Bernstein's account with the VPO.

A number of times and on a number of threads, Uchida's survey of Mozart's piano work has been mentioned and, to be honest, I don't think there is much to add to what has already been written. This is superb playing and should really be on every self-respecting Mozartian's shelf. I'll only point out my favourite moment, which comes in the Turkish March finale of the K331 sonata which features some of the most beautiful piano playing anywhere on disc and would almost certainly make it with me to my desert island. That said, the Solomon readings of the 331 and 576 (which couple with his unsurpassed Beethoven 5th concerto on Testament) are not bad.

Lastly I'll turn to opera. I'm about to enjoy Mackerras's (there I go again ) new release of La Clemenza di Tito, which was recorded just prior to a rather fine concert performance at the Edinburgh festival last summer and marks the latest instalment of his SCO cycle which has now jumped labels for the second time (by my count: it started on Telarc, went to EMI for Idomeneo, and this new issue comes from DG with Magdelena Kozena and Rainer Trost). That said, Clemenza is hardly Mozart's finest opera, even in the hands of Sir Charles. Le Nozze di Figaro on the other hand arguable is. Indeed it is one of my favourite operas and I have three recordings (none of which, you will doubtless be pleased to read is by Mackerras....yet). Part of the reason for my soft spot for Figaro stems from the fact that the Giulini/Philharmonia recording with Taddei and Schwarzkopf was the first opera I owned and I still prefer this recording above all other that I've heard. That said, purists may well object because in order to get it onto two discs Marcellina and Basilio's arias from act 4 have been lost. However, for my money that helps solve a problem in Figaro which is that most of the best music is in the first half, and the pace can sag accordingly. The only complete reading I have is Boehm with the likes of Prey, Mathis and Fischer-Dieskau, which in fact, only gets better as the opera progresses (after something of a shaky, and, to my ears, poorly recorded start). Still, it doesn't quite do it for me in the way Giulini does. The other account I have, which I can thoroughly recommend is Gui's mid 50s Glyndebourne account (which I believe is the favourite of Gramophone's good CD guide). I only purchased it because it's two sans libretto discs (cut in the same manner as Giulini) were on sale for just £6 in HMV the other day, and it would have been rude to pass them up (even when not on sale I think it only goes for around a ten pounds). This is a very fine account too, and though sound is a little 'early stereo' it is remarkably good for its time. If you're new to Figaro and/or on a budget (or even if you're not) it's well worth picking up. At this point I should probably leave a little space so that Graham can demand to know why I haven't yet tried Erich Kleiber's account - it's on my list! The only other operas I'll mention are Don Giovanni, which I have in the form of Giulini's very fine account, though I wonder whether it's a opera that really needs to be seen as well as heard, since it doesn't quite seem to capture the wit and sparkle of the Opera North production I saw last year. Lastly, there is the Magic Flute, I only have one recording, and it comes from Charles Mackerras (who else) and the LPO and is the only account in English and is very fine indeed.

I have doubtless missed many great works and interpreters off this list and, there was a certain degree of intent in that direction, the hope being that others will want to fill in the awful gaps my shameless Mackerras bias may have left. So, the floor is open!

regards, Tam