Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Claudio Abbado, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra :: Mozart: Symphony No. 25; Symphony No. 31 "Paris"; Masonic Funeral Music; Symphony in D major "The Posthorn"

Exhilirating Mozart in gorgeous sound

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 02/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When first issued in 1993-94, these Mozart performances from Abbado and the Berlin Phil. were ill-fated. No one could quite accept that long-time DG artists had switched to Sony, and sales were poor. Now the performances have resurfaced in impeccable "enhanced" DSD sound, and they couldn't be better. A direct comparison to Levine's Sym. 31 with the Vienna Phil. (DG) is telling: it's the Berliners who sound free, joyous, and alive inside--all Viennese virtues--while the Viennese themselves sound rushed and indifferent.



This is also a real concert, not just a routine collection. After the buoyant "Paris" Sym., we hear the somber Masonic Funeral March, then back to the joyous world of the "Little G minor" Sym. 25, but with a hint of residual melancholy given the symphony's minor key. Everywhere Abbado elicits dreamy delicacy in the woodwind playing (perhaps a bit too dreamy for anyone who thrives on Klemperer's plainer-speaking Mozart). Tempos are on the fast side without seeming hectic. It might also need saying that this Berlin Phil. is leaner and less grand than when we heard it play Mozart under Karajan.



The program ends with a "symphony in D" concocted from three movements of the Posthorn Serenade, a practice common in Mozart's day. These excerpted movements don't include the posthorn, by the way, since Mozart didn't choose to use the minuet in which that instrument famously but briefly appears. The three movements he did choose are structured exactly like the "Paris" symphony and therefore would sreve as a teasing parlor game ("Name That Symhony").



As a small bonus, Sony throws in the March in D, K. 335, one of his best throwaways. It's performed as vivaciously as everything else on this excellent CD, which I hope won't be overlooked the second time around."

Stunning performance

Leigh G. Hebbard | Austin, Texas USA | 10/12/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mozart: Symphony No. 25; Symphony No. 31 "Paris"; Masonic Funeral Music; Symphony in D major "The Posthorn"



A great performance of a Mozart great symphony. One can feel the joy of the music and the intensity of the artists."