Mozart - Symphonies Volume 7

The earliest Mozart symphony that is at all regularly performed is No. 25, usually known as ‘the little G minor.’ Part of the point of this first-rate CD is to show that, fine though that work is, it is not that much superior to the symphonies Mozart wrote on either side of it, when he was 17. And such is the electricity of Adam Fischer’s conducting of the Danish National Chamber Orchestra that I’m inclined, at least for now, to agree with Fischer.

Our rating

5

Michael Beek

Published: January 20, 2012 at 4:29 pm

COMPOSERS: Mozart
LABELS: Da Capo
WORKS: Symphonies Nos 22-25 & 27
PERFORMER: Danish National CO/Adam Fischer
CATALOGUE NO: 6.220542 (hybrid CD/SACD)

The earliest Mozart symphony that is at all regularly performed is No. 25, usually known as ‘the little G minor.’ Part of the point of this first-rate CD is to show that, fine though that work is, it is not that much superior to the symphonies Mozart wrote on either side of it, when he was 17. And such is the electricity of Adam Fischer’s conducting of the Danish National Chamber Orchestra that I’m inclined, at least for now, to agree with Fischer.

In an indispensable note, Claus Johansen writes about the cult of the violent and undisciplined which was characteristic of movements in all the arts in the latter 18th century, and which Mozart, as a natural man of the theatre, warmed to as soon as he encountered it, with ‘quivering tremolos, stamping syncopations, rhetorical outbursts and great leaps in the melodies’.

Listen to some performances and you’d feel that this was overdoing it, but Fischer gets his orchestra to play with fierce intensity, so that works which usually seem accomplished but conventional take on a fresh complexion.

Even so the G minor, the only one with a minuet, and a grim one at that, stands out as a breakthrough in Mozart’s rapid development at this time. But this is the first time I’ve heard its neighbours played in a way that makes me want to listen to them again. Michael Tanner

Reviews Editor, BBC Music Magazine

Michael is the Reviews Editor of BBC Music Magazine. He looks after the 26 pages of recording and book reviews in the magazine each month, deciding what will be reviewed – no easy task with so much being sent in for consideration! Michael joined the team in 2018, following ten years as a freelance film music journalist and fifteen years at St George's Bristol. Film and television music is his favourite thing, and when he’s not listening to things to be reviewed in the mag, Michael loves nothing more than to listen to the music of John Williams and James Horner – his favourite film composers. He was the Editor of MusicfromtheMovies.com and has written for the BBC Proms, BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall, Hollywood in Vienna and Silva Screen Records. His favourite writing gigs so far have been programmes for each of the Doctor Who Proms, soundtrack album notes for Doctor Who – Series 4 and Torchwood – Children of Earth, plus programmes and features for live concert screenings of Jurassic Park, Gladiator, Back to the Future and Raiders of the Lost Ark. While he never got the chance to interview the late James Horner, Michael was delighted to spend an hour on the phone with John Williams for the 2020 Christmas issue of BBC Music Magazine. Also a presenter, Michael has hosted concerts and live events for Bristol Film Festival and St George's Bristol, plus Debbie Wiseman's ‘Music and Words from Wolf Hall’ shows at venues across the UK. Michael has worked regularly with Debbie Wiseman over the years, writing concert programmes and scripts (for Terry Wogan and Simon Bates) and producing her 2011 album Piano Stories.