If this is vomit, please send more
MKA | It is a silly place. | 06/30/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"As my grandfather was fond of saying, everyone is entitled to their own wrong opinion, and that includes the pouting and foot-stamping two-star reviewer that came before me to call this record "beyond painful to listen to." Au contraire, mon frère, this is one of the most sublime discs in my collection, and almost everything stated in the previous review makes no sense to my ears whatsoever.
Firstly, to the matter of "interprations." There's no such thing as an interpration, so that's out of the way. Interpretively, this disc is by no means radical, particularly by the standards of the severe beginnings of the historically-informed performance movement or the heyday of monumental, romantic Mozart brought forth by Klemperer, Karajan, Abbado, et al. No tempo is slower or faster than you've heard before, and there is not a whimper of heavy-handed rubato or taffy-pulling to be heard; nothing more than casual adjustments known as "phrasing" to good musicians, which the Freiburgers most certainly are.
Allow me to rhapsodize further about this orchestra: they are perhaps the finest period ensemble performing today, with razor-precision, warm, firm tone and consummate musicianship that is as natural as air and relaxed in its technical command. They and the Dunedin Consort have been consistently displaying the highest possibly quality in their performances, and they are to be commended for it.
So what do we have here, if not radical interpretations or boring, tired readings of the warhorse repertoire? René Jacobs has a reputation in some circles as a fussy manager, but here I can't imagine he was having anything less than fun on the podium. He has indeed brought Mozart back to the opera house, where he came from, with readings of drama, laughter and intensity that advance a narrative of an inherent musical structure rather than a libretto. If you like your music to have infectious forward motion and a coherent sense of architecture, this disc is for you. Furthermore, these are by no means "whimpering" or lightweight readings from a petite and effete ensemble; this is Mozart that growls as well as purrs, the Sturm und Drang not having quite left Mozart's pen thought it had left Europe. I say that with some degree of welcome surprise; it has not always been the strong point of many HIP performances (Gardiner and Harnoncourt excepted, thought both can bring faults of their own, on occasion).
Particularly in the slow movements, wherein Mozart waltzes carefree-like to the edge of the abyss and then drifts back to safety with ease, we hear why he was hailed as a "romantic" of sorts in his own time. This disc eschews sewing machine music and the romantic bloat with plenty of room on either side. I'll throw caution to the wind and call it the finest disc of Mozart symphonies currently available. Buy it! Only, risk losing your faith in Beethoven; Mozart would have thundered right past him if had he not died so soon. So it goes.
-MKA"
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1