Collections of Mozart symphonies

[Barbirollians]

Thanks to EA for advising that there was a second recording of a Mozart symphony by Furtwängler. It is a recording of K543 from 1942 or 1943 in decent mono from a radio recording according to the DG sleeve.

I find it rather hard much of the time to divorce the circumstances in which these recordings were made from the musical performance itself - for such a sublime performance to have taken place in Nazi Germany seems very incongruous but no doubt part of Furtwängler ‘s expressed view that it was all about the music.

Taking it away from those associations it is indeed sublime there is a depth of emotion in the performance utterly missing from so many slick polished accounts of today.

The pre war Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is pretty amazing too worlds away from a Marriner .

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Thanks, Barbs.
The earlier WF Mozart 40 doesn’t have quite the intensity of the 1948/49 one, but the latter, despite being possibly the greatest ever performance of the work, has suffered on CD by that trashing of the first note of the third movement by some sleepy transfer engineer. It may only be one note, but it upsets me every time I listen to it; so I find myself avoiding it altogether. All other transfers seem to be direct copies of the original EMI CD transfer - later EMI ones, the Naxos one and the one in the 107 CD Furtwangler box. In the end, I gave up looking and made my own pirate CD from the 1969 HMV Concert Classics LP, though there are a few Rice Krispie sounds added to the music.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed the LP cover on Amazon. But it wasn’t the LP. It was a Warner CD from Japan. I began to have hope, and ordered it, even though it was expensive. It arrived today. I popped it into the CD player, went straight the the third movement fully expecting it to be another clone, but I nearly fell over, when the missing first was there in its original glory.

It’s been a long wait, but I could hardly be happier.

[Barbirollians]

Thanks, Barbs.
The earlier WF Mozart 40 doesn’t have quite the intensity of the 1948/49 one, but the latter, despite being possibly the greatest ever performance of the work, has suffered on CD by that trashing of the first note of the third movement by some sleepy transfer engineer. It may only be one note, but it upsets me every time I listen to it; so I find myself avoiding it altogether. All other transfers seem to be direct copies of the original EMI CD transfer - later EMI ones, the Naxos one and the one in the 107 CD Furtwangler box. In the end, I gave up looking and made my own pirate CD from the 1969 HMV Concert Classics LP, though there are a few Rice Krispie sounds added to the music.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed the LP cover on Amazon. But it wasn’t the LP. It was a Warner CD from Japan. I began to have hope, and ordered it, even though it was expensive. It arrived today. I popped it into the CD player, went straight the the third movement fully expecting it to be another clone, but I nearly fell over, when the missing first was there in its original glory.

It’s been a long wait, but I could hardly be happier.

Ordered it !

[Mal]

The earlier WF Mozart 40 doesn’t have quite the intensity of the 1948/49 one, but the latter, despite being possibly the greatest ever performance of the work...

I've only heard it on utube, and it's competing for this title, but several other "golden age" conductors have pulled out great performances of this work. I wouldn't like to choose between Furtwangler, Walter/Columbia, Szell, and Klemperer. OK, If forced, today, I'll choose Walter! So warm and lyrical. His performance on utube is the best remastering I've heard. Is that another Japanese special? (Bruno Walter: Conductor of Humanity, Vol. 4 (1959-1960), £££, © 2012 Documents)

[Keraulophone]

I have previously recounted on the MB how, a few months ago, my attempt to use TTN to lull me back to sleep resulted in my listening intently to Mozart's last three symphonies, from the development of 39(i) onwards. The vital, boistrous playing nearly bruised the miraculous invention of the music, and kept my brain in overdrive, which was the opposite of the intention. At the end, having discovered that these were live performnces by the Australian Chamber Orchestra led by Richard Tognetti, it was clear that sleep was unlikely to return, so I wrote about the experience. JLW kindly informed me that the set was commercially available, so I had to investigate further. https://youtu.be/AiWcR40OV6w

However, having now given the set time to bed down in my collection, which already includes C.Davis/LSO & SD, Szell, Bernstein/VPO, Bohm/VPO & BPO, Klemperer/Phil, Walter, Hogwood, JEG, Karajan, Kubelik, Menuhin, Mackerras, Blomstedt, Wordsworth, Bruggen, Krips, Suitner, Toscanini, Beecham, Reiner, Marriner, Harnoncourt/CO, Pinnock and Abbado/OM, it is beginning to feel so uncomfortable that it cannot itself find any rest. It's just too Aussie. The Bohm/VPO was another recording of No.41 that I first heard in nocturnal mode and thought it very satisfying in the moment, yet that one has become one of my favourites. Bruggen and Szell are also up there for long-term listening, in addition to my very first schoolboy purchase of anything by Mozart: Colin Davis/LSO's 39/40 coupling from 1962 in its mid-price Philips Universo reissue. It is these recordings that allow one to listen through vestiges of 'interpretation' to the miraculous musical invention of Mozart's genius.iven

It's intresting to compare Beecham's pre-war LPO 40 with his RPO remake, both available on YT. In each case, one notices the careful shaping of phrases, the naturalness of delivery, the artful playing, and the sheer sanity of it all. Yes, I'm adding Sir Thomas and the RPO to membership of my inner circle of late Mozart recordings. How could one not, given his Berlin 'Magic Fliute' [sic], and the rest. As he asked when the telegrams were being read out at his seventieth birthday: 'Nothing from Mozart?'