Serene Ebullience
Chosroes III | NC | 01/13/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The lightest disc of the five in Wordsworth's Mozart Symphonies set for Naxos highlights the virtues of his approach. Harnoncourt's superprecise, stripped-down articulations, while exhilarating on the major symphonies, would be supercilious with such playful pieces as the Symphony No. 27. Wordsworth's own streak of radicalism lies in his willingness to let the music breathe. The opening movement of No. 33 is just slow enough to exhibit the work's gracious sense of ebullience: not at all melancholy, but stately (this goes too for No. 36's terrific adagio-come-allegro first movement). The slow movements have the gentle pensive joy of Fragonard's famous painting of a girl and her book. And the jolly final movements swirl with exhilaration. The Capella Istropolitana's combination of modern instruments and chamber-scale presence help greatly to make this music Wordsworth's own. This disc shows how Wordsworth, with his Fanny Price take on these Elizabeth Bennett-style pieces, takes his place in the pantheon of contemporary interpreters of the 18th Century canon."