BaL 22.10.22 - Mozart: Symphony no. 31 in D "Paris" (K.297)

[Bryn]

I might: Linn recordings don't seem to be available on Deezer/Sonos.
The only version on my shelves is the cheap and cheerful Naxos conducted by Barry Wordsworth (a conductor I don't often rate that highly, but the Naxos box set of 'Famous Symphonies' seems ok to me).

I seem to recall that Linn, like Hyperion, only make downloads available from their own site.

[Pulcinella]

....
The composer's own description of the work's premiere is enlightening: a large orchestra, but with constant interruptions from the audience, even when the music was being played.

According to the liner notes in the Naxos version I have,
...where there were some forty string players and a wind section with clarinets, which Mozart here included for the first time in the scoring of a symphony.

In ANY symphony, or just a Mozart one?

[smittims]

They mean Mozart's first use of clarinets in one of his symphonies. He had previously used them in other music.

Claiming a 'first' in music is dangerous , as there may always be an earlier one. I don't know, but I'd guess Stamitz or JJ Molter wrote a symphony with clarinets first.

[Pulcinella]

They mean Mozart's first use of clarinets in one of his symphonies. He had previously used them in other music.

Claiming a 'first' in music is dangerous , as there may always be an earlier one. I don't know, but I'd guess Stamitz or JJ Molter wrote a symphony with clarinets first.

That makes sense: just a little ambiguously worded.

[Mal]

...
The only version on my shelves is the cheap and cheerful Naxos conducted by Barry Wordsworth ... seems ok to me).

I also like Wordsworth's Naxos performances, but I don't have the "Paris" disk.

[Mal]

According to the liner notes in the Naxos version I have,
...where there were some forty string players and a wind section with clarinets, which Mozart here included for the first time in the scoring of a symphony.

In ANY symphony, or just a Mozart one?

In 1777, the year before writing the symphony, Mozart visited Mannheim and listened to the famous orchestra. He said in a letter to his father, "You cannot imagine the glorious effect of a symphony with oboes, flutes, and clarinets..." So there must have been at least one symphony with clarinets before the "Paris". What did he hear in Mannheim?

[Goon525]

Linn recordings, including Mackerras Mozart, ARE available for streaming through Qobuz.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Linn recordings, including Mackerras Mozart, ARE available for streaming through Qobuz.

Also Naxos Music Library (NML: http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...-library/page2 often available via Library membership...).

[edashtav]

In 1777, the year before writing the symphony, Mozart visited Mannheim and listened to the famous orchestra. He said in a letter to his father, "You cannot imagine the glorious effect of a symphony with oboes, flutes, and clarinets..." So there must have been at least one symphony with clarinets before the "Paris". What did he hear in Mannheim?

Heather Roche wrote this on-line:
Mozart became familiar with the clarinet as early as 1764, through copying C.F. Abel’s Symphony op.7 no.6, but didn’t use them until 1771 in his Divertimento K113, composed in Milan. The parts for this are quite simple, suiting the technical abilities of the orchestral players of the time, who would have most likely had five-key instruments.

———————

I suspect that Beecham’s 1938 recording of the work with the LPO was its premiere on 78 r.p.m. Beecham seemed to revel in its violin fireworks which was fortunate for the recording’s acoustics are dry as dust and the engineer, Walter Legge, gave the violins a prominence that turned the work into a Concerto for Orchestral Violins.

[smittims]

I can't trace an earlier recording, so yes, I think Beecham 1938 was the first.

Where I must disagree with you, if only to encourage others to hear it, is on the recording quality. David Hall, in 'The Record Book' called it 'excellent... especially so.' I remember first hearing it in 1973, when Anthony Griffith's World Record Club LP transfer was released (I think the first issue in his 'Retrospect Series') and the sound leapt out of the speakers.

[edashtav]

I can't trace an earlier recording, so yes, I think Beecham 1938 was the first.

Where I must disagree with you, if only to encourage others to hear it, is on the recording quality. David Hall, in 'The Record Book' called it 'excellent... especially so.' I remember first hearing it in 1973, when Anthony Griffith's World Record Club LP transfer was released (I think the first issue in his 'Retrospect Series') and the sound leapt out of the speakers.

I’ve just listened to a 2011 remastered version on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/lPM_a1EnvL4

I must admit that it isn’t as awful in recording terms as my memory led me to believe, smittims, but its dessicated acoustic does lack warmth and the violins are spot-lighted. No doubt, good in parts, and in terms of the standards of 1938, par for the course.

[Mal]

I’ve just listened to a 2011 remastered version on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/lPM_a1EnvL4

I must admit that it isn’t as awful in recording terms as my memory led me to believe...

Thanks for this, it sounds much better than the version I listened to on Spotify Premium, on an obscure label... I managed to find the EMI Mozart & Haydn box on Spotify, eventually, and the other two movements are equally wonderful.

https://open.spotify.com/track/0PqZyfK2UVkCNcJggPJQW2?si=RpI7Cr3jTgOb-gRklLSUcA&utm_source=copy-link

[smittims]

Maybe personal taste is a factor. I love the sound of Studio One but a friend cannot tolerate recordings made there.

[Mal]

I wasn't being sarcastic, I like the EMI re-master, it's the Cris music re-master I don't like: https://open.spotify.com/album/0JShi...urce=copy-link

[gradus]

The later Philips recording from the fifties is enjoyable too as are TB's other Mozart sym. records with the RPO from the same era, my LPs include 31, 35, 38,39 40 and 41, perhaps there were others?