Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

In its prodigious diversity, a blend of lightheartedness and sharpness, elegance and severity, Mozart’s music is the mirror of his life, which was marked by a succession of harrowing crises and wonderful breakthroughs. Moreover, he himself said he was constantly torn between anguish and joy. In 1778, while he was staying in Paris and in a sad and sombre mood, Mozart composed several piano sonatas, including the dramatic K.310 Sonata, written in that key of A minor which Alfred Einstein said was the key of desolation, the celebrated K.331 Sonata, in the French style and ending famously with its joyous rondo Alla turca (with a coda added in 1784), and the K.333 Sonata over which hovers the shade of Johann Christian Bach, youngest son of Johann Sebastian, to whom Mozart was bound in sincere friendship.

Completed on 20 May 1785, the tragic Fantasia in C minor, K.475, was published under Mozart’s supervision in the same year, together with the Sonata in C minor, K.457. This seemingly free and improvisatory but in fact cleverly constructed work comprises several sections in which lyrical episodes of striking pathos mingle with tormented passages with intense emotional content. The variety of Mozart’s thought and the boldness of his harmonies are here quite exceptional.

The final two volumes in this benchmark survey of Mozart’s complete music for Keyboard and Violin, released together at a special priced 2 disc set.

‘(… ) So, my lasting impression, having dissected every note of the music, is of a cornucopia of hidden gems; hidden because history has under-rated, misunderstood and bowdlerized the collective meaning of these works by assuming that it is an uneven genre – but then so are the symphonies and even the operas! Finally, one asks why there hasn’t previously been a complete recording on historical instruments. From my ‘privileged’ position as listener-inchief, I can tell you it is because no pair can make such transparent and difficult music sound so effortless, elegant, witty, emotionally persuasive and enjoyable.’ Jonathan Freeman- Attwood, producer

A fixture on the music scene for more than six decades, pianist Leon Fleisher releases his first two-hand concerto recording in 40 years.

The new recording is comprised of a trio of Mozart concertos recorded with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra: no. 23 in A Major, K. 488; no. 12 in A Major, K. 414; and no. 7 in F Major for two pianos, K. 242, for which he is joined by his wife Katherine Jacobson-Fleisher. Founded in 1945, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra has held a top position in the international orchestral world for more than 60 years. Under founder and director Karl Mnchinger, the ensemble had developed and cultivated the repertoire of the Viennese Classicists.

+BONUS DVD

Filmed in December 2008 in Paris (Salle pleyel) & Wuppertl, Germany (Immanuelskirche)

A classic recording of Mozart’s opera ‘Die Entführung aus dem Serail’, by the legendary operatic conductor Peter Maag.

Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail is based on a libretto by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner, and in formal terms is a typical Singspiel of comic nature where musical pieces alternate with recited passages. However, unlike the ‘dry recitative’ of Italian opera which is sung to the accompaniment of a basso continuo, Die Entführung aus dem Serail is musically very varied with quite elaborate arias and duets of remarkable length.

This radio recording of Die Entführung aus dem Serail was made in Bolzano in 1958 with the orchestra and chorus of the Milan RAI under the artistic direction of the legendary operatic conductor Peter Maag. The featured soloists, all of whom were highly regarded singers of their time, are sopranos Teresa Stich Randall and Rosl Schwaiger, tenors Herbert Handt and Ernst Haflinger, and the renowned bass Gottlob Frick.

One of Verdi’s masterpieces sung by excellent singers, combined with two complimentary works. Conducted by Cambreling, this is a stunning recording on 2 SACDs.

Sviatoslav Richter represents the summit of pianistic achievement: his incredible virtuosity and strength, his vision of structure and form, the range of emotion he was able to express on his instrument in concert and on disc have never been surpassed.

Now, for the first time, all nine of the solo and concerto LP-recordings he made for Deutsche Grammophon have been gathered into a single box-set at budget price. All of these recordings have been in the DG catalogue since they were made; if they’re not still at top price, they’re in The Originals series.

It started in 1956 with a Schumann recital and ended in 1962 with a recital recorded live on tour in Italy. In between there were five concerto LPs (including Rachmaninov’s Second, Tchaikovsy’s First with Karajan, the Schumann and Prokofiev’s Fifth) and two more mixed recitals. Here they are, faithfully reproduced in their original couplings (newly mastered) and with original artwork in mini-LP format. The CD booklet (in the style of the The Martha Argerich Collection) has masterly new liner notes by piano expert Jeremy Siepmann, who manages to capture the essence of Richter the man and musician, as well as furnishing precise annotations on each of the albums in turn.

An essential box-set for all serious lovers of piano music.