BaL 26.03.11 - Mozart Symphony no 25 in G minor.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Chris de Souza recommends an available recording in a field stretching from Barbirolli and Bruno Walter to some of today's leading period instrument practitioners.

Available versions:

VPO - Kertesz
ECO - Tate
NYPO - Barbirolli
VPO - Walter
BPO - Walter
Columbia SO - Walter
VPO - Bernstein
Academy of St-Martin-in-the-Fields - Marriner
Danish National Radio Orchestra - Fischer
Hungarian National Philharmonic - Kocsis
BPO - Bohm
Rome RAI Symphony Orchestra - Maag
Prague Chamber Orchestra - Mackerras
Lamoureux Concert Association Orchestra - Klemperer
Concertgebouw Orchestra - Klemperer
Concertgebouw Orchestra- Harnoncourt
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra - Kubelik
LSO Solti
Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg - Hager
Calella Istropolitana - Wordsworth
Le Cercle de l'Harmonie - Rhorer
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra - Koopman
Academy of Ancient Music - Hogwood
Mozart Akademie Amsterdam - Linden
Cappella Coloniensis - Fischer(?)
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra - Norrington
Camarata Academica Salzburg - Vegh
Sachsiches Kammerorchester Leipzig - Moesus
LPO - Celibidache
English Concert - Pinnock

Download only:
Concertgebouw - Krips

Saxophone Quintet arrangement:
Quintessence Saxophone Quintet

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's a surprising choice for BAL - the first of Mozart's well-known symphonies, sometimes called the "Little G Minor". I was brought up on the New York Bruno Walter recording, and later acquired the Marriner, Krips and Bohm versions. Perhaps we're all punch-drunk on Mozart, following the Mozartfest in January.

[visualnickmos]

I would guess there are many superb perfomances on CD - maybe a question of personal preference of the style, weight, speed, etc.
I actually enjoy Klemperer on EMI (Philharmonia Orchestra) as I like my Mozart with muscles, so to speak. But I have Solti, Walter and one or two others which I also enjoy. This makes for an interesting BaL.

[aeolium]

There's also Britten's version with the ECO, and the first version that I heard was Colin Davis and the LSO in the 1960s (not sure if either of those is currently available on CD).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There's also Britten's version with the ECO, and the first version that I heard was Colin Davis and the LSO in the 1960s (not sure if either of those is currently available on CD).

Neither appears to available, though it's still possible to buy Britten's on Amazon - on a very high price Double Decca. I admit that I haven't traced a Colin Davis recording of the work.

I suppose this symphony's best known appearance is near the beginning of Amadeus when it is discovered that Salieri has tried to kill himself.

[umslopogaas]

Post 1 Eine Alpensinfonie

One not on your list, presumably not currently available, is Sergiu Celibidache with the LPO (Decca, mono LP LXT 2558, dating from 1950, I think). This is a conductor we dont seem to hear much about any more, though he has a sort of mythical status and his discs sell for high prices. On this disc symphony 25 is coupled with no. 36, with the VPO conducted by Karl Bohm.

As well as Celibidache I've got stereo versions conducted by Kertesz, Marriner and Britten. That'll do.

[Gordon]

Post 1 Eine Alpensinfonie

One not on your list, presumably not currently available, is Sergiu Celibidache with the LPO (Decca, mono LP LXT 2558, dating from 1950, I think). This is a conductor we dont seem to hear much about any more, though he has a sort of mythical status and his discs sell for high prices. On this disc symphony 25 is coupled with no. 36, with the VPO conducted by Karl Bohm.

There is a 10CD budget box of Celibidache that includes this Decca Mozart S25 with the LPO. It was recorded at Kingsway Hall in 1948. It's in the same series of big boxes that has one for Beecham [see the thread on Beecham in BaL forum] and Baribirolli. It's from Membran [a kind of Brilliant Classics reissue specialist] and has the following contents, mostly from his time in Berlin. As for Beecham box transfers variable:

231 885 Set number Celibidache conducts
Disc 1 Mozart: Symphony 25 in G minor K183 with LPO recorded Kingsway Hall April 9th and December 29th 1948
Haydn: Symphony 94 with BPO recorded September 28th 1946
Haydn: Symphony 104 with BPO recorded February 20th 1950
Disc 2 Beethoven: Overture Leonore III with BPO recorded November 11th 1946
Berlioz: Overture Le Corsaire with BPO recorded August 31st 1947
Mendelssohn: Symphony 4 with BPO recorded January 20th 1950
Disc 3 Brahms: Symphony 2 with BPO recorded 1949
Brahms 4 I and II with BPO recorded November 21 1945
Disc 4 Brahms 4 III and IV with BPO recorded November 21 1945
Dvorak: Cello Concerto with Pierre Fournier with “LPO” recorded 1945
This is a pirated, but now out of copyright, live recording and has been erroneously attributed to the LPO.
Billed as "The Legendary 1945 London Broadcast" on the front of the Grammofono 2000 CD booklet and "Recording Autumn 1945" on the case. "Radio Times" lists no such broadcast and, according to the LPO's concert programmes, Celibidache did not conduct the orchestra until April 1948. The "Gramophone" review of the Urania issue described it as "of somewhat doubtful provenance" and observed that "the wobbly lead horn sounds more French than English".
Disc 5 Tchaikovsky: Symphony 2 in C minor Op 176 with BPO recorded 1948
Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker Suite with LPO recorded Kingsway Hall December 28/9th 1948 and July 23rd 1949
Disc 6 Tchaikovsky: Symphony 5 in E minor Op 64 with LPO recorded Kingsway Hall July 5-6th & 9th 1948
Overture Romeo & Juliet with BPO recorded March 25th 1946
Disc 7 Debussy: La Mer with BPO recorded August 31st 1947
Debussy: Jeux with BPO recorded March 20th 1948
Busoni: Violin Concerto with Siegfried Borries with BPO recorded May 8th 1949
Disc 8 Hindemith: Piano Concerto with Gerhardt Puchelt with BPO recorded September 12th 1949
Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem with BPO recorded November 10th 1946
Gliere: Concerto for Soprano and Orchestra Erna Berger with BPO recorded June 7th 1946
Disc 9 Shostakovich: Symphony 7 with BPO recorded December 22nd 1946
Disc 10 Sostakovich: Symphony 9 with BPO recorded August 31st 1946
Prokofiev: Symphony 1 with BPO recorded July 6th 1946
Stravinsky: Jeu de Cartes with BPO recorded March 6th 1950

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Thanks, umslopogaas and Gordon. I've added this one.

[gurnemanz]

Pinnock will surely be in there. The only recording I have of No 25 is on his complete symphonies box with the period instrument English Concert. This marvellous teenage work receives a very good performance here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-Symphonies-Pinnock-Wolfgang-Amadeus/dp/B000069KJ3/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1300614379&sr=1-1

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Pinnock will surely be in there. The only recording I have of No 25 is on his complete symphonies box with the period instrument English Concert. This marvellous teenage work receives a very good performance here:

How could I have missed this one?

[Petrushka]

I only have the ECO/Britten on Decca and that will do for me.

[french frank]

I discover I have BPO/Böhm in a box set among the LPs I 'came by' last year. Any votes for this version?

(Böhm has been a hero ever since I heard his Entführung, esp. the overture, accompanied by the photo with that snooty Viennese look of his.)

[aeolium]

The ECO/Britten performance is available from jpc in Germany, together with the other symphonies he recorded for Decca, nos 29, 38 and 40, and the Serenata Notturna. I'd be surprised if this didn't get a mention in the BaL.

[Nick Armstrong]

The Mozart Symphony performances I always come back to are those by the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Josef Krips. As someone who has always much preferred the piano concertos to the symphonies, these readings brought the latter alive for me.

There seems something so 'right' about them, always a pulse, a swing, an inner rhythm, which I couldn't define but which makes the music live (even when the minuets are rather slower than is the fashion now). Plus that amazing orchestra, and the acoustic, and great recordings which manage to reveal everything and yet still leave an ideal amount of air around the sound.

He only recorded Nos 21 onwards, and they always seem to have been much more valued on the continent than here. They garnered all the top ratings, 'diapasons d'or' etc. in France, where I bought them when they were issued on Philips CDs. They were re-released in a Decca box in 2007 I think, but it doesn't seem to be available here.

Hence I shouldn't think that Krips will feature in the programme, which is a pity. I listened to the 1st movement of No 25 today, it's wonderful.

You can listen to clips and indeed download it for pennies (well, cents) here:

http://www.amazon.fr/Mozart-Symphoni...626294&sr=8-12

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I didn't include the Krips version in the list, as it isn't generally available here. I have it on LP as part of the earlier (not entirely complete) Philips Mozart edition, and I agree that there are some fine performances in the set (including the slowest K.550 1st movement ever - yet it works). However, since it's downloadable, I'll add it on.