Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Claudio Abbado, London Symphony Orchestra :: Mozart: Symphony Nos. 40 & 41 "Jupiter"

Big-band Mozart with rather stodgy tempos

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 09/03/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I've been exploring claudio Abbado's years with the London Symphony (late Seventies, early Eighties) when he made some of his most vibrant and energized recordings. This pairing of Mozart Sym. 40 and 41 isn't one of his best from that era. Recorded in pleasing, warm sound in 1980, it approaches Mozart in the full Romantic style, but with less intensity than others, like Furtwangler and Bernstein, who are more fervently committed.



The LSO plays with rich sonority, and Abbado's tempos tend to be on the slow side--even slower in the G minor than Furtwangler from the late Forites on EMI. The playing itself is graceful--listen to the light Minuet in the G minor--and as expected Abbado brings refinement and skill to what he's doing. In fact, these are likable readings if you don't mind turning the clock back, less glossy than Karajan's, but I expected a little more life from them. By the Nineties Abbado's ideas had changed, and his Mozart became leaner and swifter, though sometimes just as cautious."