Search - Glover, London Mozart Players :: Symphonies 25,29 & 33

Outstanding Symphony 25, and Good Versions of the Other Two

Doug - Haydn Fan | California | 07/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jane Glover and the London Mozart Players' core repetoire was made up of such works as these three Mozart symphonies recorded back at the beginning of 1990. When I first heard this Cd at a friend's house the sound was turned down way too much, and in consequence the performance sounded too laid back. Now, having had a chance to relisten on a better system and at a more reasonable level of volume the quality of the conducting and playing stands out as excellent, and in the G minor Symphony these forces bring off a marvelous rendition!



On this album Symphony 29 in A major comes first, though it was composed in April, 1774, six months after the G minor work. Astonishing, even for Mozart, these two symphonic masterpieces fall just before and after Mozart's 18th birthday! Mozart is now working out his symphonies in four movements, and the first movements take on a greater scale and length than before. Symphony 29 was always the most popular of these three, and has long been a favorite of conductors - it was the earliest major Mozart symphony to find a home in the basic repetoire. Koussevitsky led marvelous performances of this work in the thirties, and Cantelli left a famous reading during his too brief career. Glover leads a suave good performance, though never the floating melodic miracle which this symphony in just the right hands can be.



Symphony 25 in G minor is the most operatic of the three symphonies, with a most dramatic and intense driving first movement. Glover and the London Mozart Players get all of this work, and give us an absolutely splendid reading of the entire work!

As they might say in London - top stuff and quite smashing!



The last work, Symphony No.33, in B flat major, was composed five years later than the earlier pair and finds Mozart working in far smaller details and using his instrumental forces with ever greater cunning and virtuosity. It's a work of wonderful melodic sureness and anyone can enjoy it's delights, but Mozart leavens his creative dough with extraordinary touches only the greatest composer might bestow - the result: a lighter than air marvel, and one with subtle charms galore for the connoisseur. Glover plays this work with care and breeding, she is after all a legitimate Mozart specialist, and again offers a nice reading.



All in all a fine Cd, and one I enjoy playing! Also, don't fail to pay close attention to Glover's masterful way with Mozart's slow movements!



Fans of Mozart's Symphony 25 can find some good older versions! From way back in the fifties, and in excellent, restored mono, is Bruno Walter's take - exceedingly fast compared to Glover, yet somehow not unsatisfying. Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 25, 28, 29 & 35 More recently there's Marriner, from the seventies, giving a performance closer in speeds to Glover's. Marriner has wonderful woodwinds, and highlights them; his playing sounds very Mozartian, if that makes sense - but after nearly thirty years the stereo lacks the beautiful sound of the best contemporary recordings. Mozart: Symphony Nos.25, 26, 27, 29 & 32 Although Britten's Mozart conducting had a profound impact on Glover's approach - Britten's performance of Symphony 25 might be said to be in part the exception. Britten had recorded a stunning, large-scaled reading of Mozart's Symphony 40, also in G minor, and he chose to bring the same large scaled thoughts to Mozart's earlier G minor work, written when the composer was nearly twenty years younger. To my taste it doesn't work nearly so well in the junior opus - Britten's expansion of the Andante in particular did not win over Glover - she comes in almost two minutes faster than Britten's near Brucknerian traversal, which is a huge difference when you compare four minutes to six! Mozart: Symphony Nos.25, 29, 38 & 40/Serenata Notturna In D Major"