Mozart shouldn't be this clipped and brisk
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 02/12/2006
(3 out of 5 stars)
"After praising a number of Levine's Mozart recordings, especially his wonderful Posthorn Serenade, this CD brought me up short. Levine is always quick in this music, verging on the efficient. Here he is downright brusque, forcing tempos and clipping phrases everywhere. Not a single bar, even in the slow movements, is allowed to relax or smile. The Vienna Phil. plays with its expected finesse, even at these breakneck speeds, but the digital sound from 1986 is thin and glassy. I will tiptoe a bit more cautiously through Levine's complete Mozart cycle from now on."