COMPOSERS: Mozart
LABELS: EMI
WORKS: Symphony No. 29; Symphony No. 40; Symphony No. 41
PERFORMER: Berlin PO/Herbert von Karajan
CATALOGUE NO: CDM 7 64327-2 ADD (1960/70)
Karajan’s Mozart is patently of another generation – spacious, generous in orchestral strength, happy to take liberties over phrasing, tempo and repeats. If you’re drawn to Mozart glossily articulated and plushily played, then you won’t be disappointed. Stylistically, these symphonies show Karajan the classicist in an essentially Romantic light, with a hard-driven, Beethovenian 40th, and a Jupiter (No. 41) shorn of exposition repeats. Adequate transfers, but excessive background tape hiss in No. 29. Ates Orga
Mozart: Symphony No. 29; Symphony No. 40; Symphony No. 41
Karajan’s Mozart is patently of another generation – spacious, generous in orchestral strength, happy to take liberties over phrasing, tempo and repeats. If you’re drawn to Mozart glossily articulated and plushily played, then you won’t be disappointed. Stylistically, these symphonies show Karajan the classicist in an essentially Romantic light, with a hard-driven, Beethovenian 40th, and a Jupiter (No. 41) shorn of exposition repeats. Adequate transfers, but excessive background tape hiss in No. 29. Ates Orga
Our rating
4
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:37 pm