Search - Mozart, Haydn, Walter :: Opera Overtures / Symphony 96

Walter's classic way with Mozart and Haydn--absolutely super

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 12/17/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"At every stage of his long career Bruno Walter showed a special affinity for Mozart; they were almost kindred spirits. He lavished warmth and affection to the utmost degree on Mozart's lyric line, but Walter also had a geat sense of joy, and this helped the minuets and dance movements to leap to life. The Mozart recordings here are all in mono from 1954, half with the NY Phil., half with a pickup Columbia Sym.



The two opening minuets and four German dances are fuller in spirit and slower than modern readings, but bursting with buoyancy even so. The collection really takes off with four opera overtures (Magic Flute, Figaro, Cosi, and the Impressario) so infectious and lively that I kept thinking they were the best I'd ever heard--only the classic Klemperer recordings rival them. Have no fear, they are fast and rambunctious, not slow and mincing.



The Haydn "Miracle" Sym. #96, also from 1954 (everything on this CD was recorded in Nov. and Dec. of that year) features the NY Phil. in excellent sound, so identical to the Mozart overtures that I suspect the Columbia Sym. is just a pseudonym. In any event, this is infectious, warm-hearted Haydn--what a relief from the Skinny Minnie foisted on us recently. Everything has inner life and therefore is perfect.



Along with the Mozart overtures, the Haydn is masterful. Five stars without a doubt, and I won't even complain about the 57 min. duration."