BaL 26.03.11 - Mozart Symphony no 25 in G minor.

[Petrushka]

I only have the ECO/Britten on Decca and that will do for me.

[french frank]

I discover I have BPO/Böhm in a box set among the LPs I 'came by' last year. Any votes for this version?

(Böhm has been a hero ever since I heard his Entführung, esp. the overture, accompanied by the photo with that snooty Viennese look of his.)

[aeolium]

The ECO/Britten performance is available from jpc in Germany, together with the other symphonies he recorded for Decca, nos 29, 38 and 40, and the Serenata Notturna. I'd be surprised if this didn't get a mention in the BaL.

[Caliban]

The Mozart Symphony performances I always come back to are those by the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Josef Krips. As someone who has always much preferred the piano concertos to the symphonies, these readings brought the latter alive for me.

There seems something so 'right' about them, always a pulse, a swing, an inner rhythm, which I couldn't define but which makes the music live (even when the minuets are rather slower than is the fashion now). Plus that amazing orchestra, and the acoustic, and great recordings which manage to reveal everything and yet still leave an ideal amount of air around the sound.

He only recorded Nos 21 onwards, and they always seem to have been much more valued on the continent than here. They garnered all the top ratings, 'diapasons d'or' etc. in France, where I bought them when they were issued on Philips CDs. They were re-released in a Decca box in 2007 I think, but it doesn't seem to be available here.

Hence I shouldn't think that Krips will feature in the programme, which is a pity. I listened to the 1st movement of No 25 today, it's wonderful.

You can listen to clips and indeed download it for pennies (well, cents) here:

http://www.amazon.fr/Mozart-Symphoni...626294&sr=8-12

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I didn't include the Krips version in the list, as it isn't generally available here. I have it on LP as part of the earlier (not entirely complete) Philips Mozart edition, and I agree that there are some fine performances in the set (including the slowest K.550 1st movement ever - yet it works). However, since it's downloadable, I'll add it on.

[Caliban]

I didn't include the Krips version in the list, as it isn't generally available here. I have it on LP as part of the earlier (not entirely complete) Philips Mozart edition, and I agree that there are some fine performances in the set (including the slowest K.550 1st movement ever - yet it works). However, since it's downloadable, I'll add it on.

[umslopogaas]

french frank, post 12

Bohm should be good enough for all time. I'll tolerate the current fashion for 'authenticity' without much enthusiasm, since to me it overplays scholarship and eliminates 'interpretation' from the presentation: yes, the composer left us a score, which is more or less his/her thoughts, sometimes skeletal, sometimes detailed and they should be respected, indeed, revered, but no composer left us the last word and none of them ever will, ever. (OK, rebuttal, I know there are composers who think they did. But the arguments have not subsided. Was it Berlioz, Xenakis, or Messiaen, or someone around them, who left us fantastically detailed scores of how their music should PRECISELY and for all time, be played? I dont remember, but in any case, I dont think there will ever be a last word. That's creativity. Someone has to get out and up there, and make it happen. Music doesnt hang on the wall for all time, the score is just the beginning, not the final oil painting).

Cellini, Mr Gongong, you know about this?

In the meantime, I'll make do with Marriner and the ASMF. Argo LP ZRG 706, wonderful playing of number 25, a spring in their heels that we now take for granted in this music, but at the time (1972) was just exhilarating. That'll do, they blew the cobwebs off Beecham and Boult and ... fill in your own dullards.

And after all, Mozart or not, its only number twenty five. There's a lot more to come.

Just noticed that with respect to traditionalists versus iconoclasts, I dont know where I stand. Not a problem, there are no right and wrong answers.

STOP WITTERING AND SEND!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

In the meantime, I'll make do with Marriner and the ASMF. Argo LP ZRG 706, wonderful playing of number 25, a spring in their heels that we now take for granted in this music, but at the time (1972) was just exhilarating. That'll do, they blew the cobwebs off Beecham and Boult and ... fill in your own dullards.

...except that Beecham and Boult didn't record no. 25. But I presume you were speaking more generally - but I'd hardly use the word "cobwebs" in relation to Beecham's magnificent interpretations of Mozart.

[umslopogaas]

Post 18 Eine Alpensinfonie

Woops, I should be more careful with my sentence construction. What I meant to say was "the likes of Boult and Beecham". I'm sure you are right, I just checked through my discs and there are no symphony 25 recordings by those two. What I was trying to say was that I found the ASMF and Marriner a breath of fresh air after more conventional, old-fashioned interpretations.

At the risk of being hurled into outer darkness, I dont share the general adulation of Beecham. I cant deny he did some fine things, but what little I have read about him, and what I have heard of recorded interviews, suggests to me an unpleasant person. I'll not say more, its only a personal impression, but I'm glad I never met him, or had to work with him.

[verismissimo]

I suppose this symphony's best known appearance is near the beginning of Amadeus when it is discovered that Salieri has tried to kill himself.

How dramatic that was. And what vivid playing by ASMF/Marriner.

Currently in love with Prague CO/Mackerras.