Search - BONUS TRACKS: Rehearsal Sessions for Mozart Symphony No. 40 movements 1, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in g minor KV550, Orchestra No. 4 in G Major :: Karl Böhm Conducts

"I suffer no compromises in music. I caused a good deal of mischief in my life - but in my music, I was always honest, always upright." - Karl Böhm in July 1981, a few weeks before his death. One of the hallmarks of Böhm's conducting was its perennially youthful vigor and directness, its lack of pathos and sentimentality. Dramatic climaxes and full sonorities grew out of almost imperceptible accents, out of the natural rhythm of the human breath. In short? he was the ideal conductor for Mozart! Böhm's Mozart interpretations reflect the naturalness and clarity of his conducting. Although Wagner was one of his first loves, Böhm soon discovered Mozart's operas thanks to Bruno Walter, who let him conduct Die Entführung aus dem Serail in Munich in the early 1920s. Later, Böhm's friendship with Richard Strauss led to a still deeper knowledge and appreciation of Mozart. In his autobiography, Böhm wrote that "Richard Strauss revealed to me the ultimate secrets of this - in my opinion - greatest of all musical geniuses [Mozart]." Böhm's discovery of these secrets transformed his Mozart interpretations into unforgettable events.