Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Barry Wordsworth, Capella Istropolitana :: Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 41, 25 & 32

Better than the Berlin Philharmonic/Böhm

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 09/25/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This was one of the first Naxos discs that I purchased quite a few years ago, and because I was at that time somewhat sceptical about the ability of a label based in Hong Kong to produce good recordings at budget price with Eastern European orchestras, I decided to make some comparisons with low-priced re-releases from major labels. The comparisons did not always turn out in Naxos' favour, although generally I was impressed at the level of quality the company was able to maintain. But in this particular instance, after listening both to Wordsworth and the Capella Istropolitana on Naxos and to the 1962 Berlin Philharmonic re-release of Mozart's 'Jupiter Symphony' (directed by Karl Böhm), I felt that Naxos had won hands-down.



Why? Well, although some of Böhm's instruments (I'm thinking in particular of the flute) sound a little better - the flute on the Wordsworth sounds too 'breathy' -, the smaller Capella Istropolitana manages to produce a performance that offers real transprarency: here you really hear everything that is going on, whereas the Berlin recording seems at least occasionally to get 'drowned' in its heavy strings. But what really clinches it is the way that Barry Wordsworth takes the whole symphony in a much more relaxed manner: his tempi are much slower, but that nowhere seems to drag the music out, although he needs over three minutes longer on each of three of the four movements. Only on the Menuetto: Allegretto does he allow himself a slightly faster tempo than Böhm, and this also seems to work very well. Böhm takes the first movement 'Allegro vivace' at presto, which sounds over-hurried, and if the first three movements from Böhm are still fairly 'listenable', then it is the fourth movement 'Molto allegro' which finally clinches the victory for Wordsworth: While Böhm charges through it, really robbing the movement of its beauty and making it more or less impossible to hear its wonderful fugue-like structure, Wordsworth takes it at a much more leisurely pace and makes sure that you can hear and appreciate what Mozart is doing.



I'm not pretending that the Naxos disc is perfect, there is occasionally some noise on the recording and the stereo panorama could have been broader. But compared with Böhm on Deutsche Grammophon the disc is well worth its price. And, of course, you also get a sympathetic version of Mozart's Symphony No. 25 (with occasionally somewhat weak bassoons) and a rather brilliant one-movement Symphony No. 32 into the bargain. Unless you are an absolute perfectionist, I would say, 'Go for it!' If you are an absolute perfectionist, you should be thinking about spending more money for this music!"

Very Good Mozart Symphonies!

JohnL | Alexander, NC United States | 01/17/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Barry Wordsworth leads this orchestra with three dynamic Mozart symphonies: No.41 in C Major "Jupiter" K.551, No.25 in G minor, K.183 (which was used in the opening of the famous movie "Amadeus"), and Symphony No.32 in G Major, K.318. The "Jupiter" Symphony is very well done, recorded in modern digital sound. The fantastic last movement of this symphony is full of energy and vitality. Symphony No.25 is also nicely performed, with the above-mentioned dramatic opening theme. This is yet another outstanding release from Naxos, a quality recording at a price that's nice! You can't go wrong here."