Jacobs Mozart Operas series

“The star is tenor Daniel Behle, whose Tamino is the finest on disc since Fritz Wunderlich. Jacobs opts on occasion for exaggerated speeds, whether fast or slow. The playing is excellent.” The Guardian, 9th September 2010 ***

“The principal singers inhabit their roles as persuasively as possible for such an absurdly mythopoeic fairytale, with Daniel Behle a noble Tamino and baritone Daniel Schmutzhard particularly effective as Papageno.” The Independent, 9th September 2010 ***

“...fresh, lively, quick-witted – and characteristically full of liberties...The solo singing is impeccably schooled and dramatically believable...Daniel Schmutzhard makes the most of his Viennese Papageno. Daniel Behle is the thoughtful Tamino, Marlis Petersen a virginal Pamina.” Financial Times, 11th September 2010 ****

“From the violently arresting opening chords of the overture, it is clear this Die Zauberflöte is not going to be routine...but to anyone who feels that they know the opera inside out, it’s an exhilarating wake-up call...the entire cast sings with meticulous musicality, and the RIAS Chamber Choir and Akademie für Alte Musik could hardly be bettered.” The Telegraph, 13th September 2010 ****

“Some of his tempi and abrupt gear changes will disturb purist Mozartians, but his youthful cast gives huge pleasure: Marlis Petersen’s radiant Pamina, Daniel Behle’s lyrical, aristocratic Tamino and Daniel Schmutzhard’s garrulous Papageno are among the finest sung on disc, and Anna-Kristiina Kappola’s steely-toned Queen of the Night doesn’t miss a stitch in her coloratura runs.” Sunday Times, 19th September 2010 ****

“With a generally youthful cast boasting some lovely voices, the music is equally captivating. Jacobs is all about excitement and making the most of orchestral detail...Full of surprises, Jacobs’s account is a real game-changer: we will never listen to this multi-faceted masterpiece in the same way again.” Graham Rogers, bbc.co.uk, 25th August 2010

“...this is a total experience, perfectly tailored for private listening. René Jacobs thinks of it as a Hörspiel: it's a play to be heard - I don't know a recorded Zauberflöte more thrillingly alive with fantasy, profoundly musical imagination, real magic, and real fun too.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2010 *****

“There's much to savour in the individual performances here, with often-sublime singing.” Classic FM Magazine, November 2010 ***

“As ever, Jacobs favours lively speeds, light articulation and pungent, colourful textures...I suspect I shall reach for this new recording as often as any, for its bubbling, crackling theatricality and an eager, yet unforced, sense of fun that never short-changes the opera's central message of human enlightenment.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2010

“Mozart's first great opera has fared well on disc...there are penetrating things here, especially the seriousness with which the recitative is treated, and the interaction of Richard Croft's Idomeneo and Bernarda Fink's ideal Idamante - the great quartet is moving.” The Observer, 14th June 2009

“The performance has great dramatic vitality throughout, and the sublime Gluckian drama of the third act has seldom sounded more urgent or moving. The playing of the Freiburg Barockorchester is beyond praise, as is” The Telegraph, 1st June 2009 ****

“The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra plays wonderfully, and much of the singing is first rate, especially Richard Croft's authoritative Idomeneo, Bernarda Fink's honey-toned Idamante (Jacobs rightly favours the original 1781 version of the score with a mezzo rather than a tenor in that role), and Alexandrina Pendatchanska's haughty Elettra.” The Guardian, 22nd May 2009 ***

“Idomeneo is the American tenor Richard Croft, wading through the moral quagmire with impressively crisp decorative runs.... In the role of the Trojan princess Ilia, Sunhae Im wields a small voice, but she uses it with point and feeling. As for Alexandrina Pendatchanska, if we could tap the rage of her Elettra there’d be no need for nuclear power stations.” The Times, 22nd May 2009 ****

“The orchestral playing, choral singing and most of the soloists are first-rate: Bernarda Fink’s ardent Idamante, Alexandrina Pendatchanska’s spitfire Elettra and Richard Croft’s noble Idomeneo rank with the best on disc.” Sunday Times, 17th May 2009 ***

“Jacob's strongest players are the superb Idamante of Bernarda Fink: tender, ardent and in touch with every nerve-ending of every beautifully shaped phrase. Alexandrina Pendatchanska, from her blazing top register to the dark depths of her voice, is a thrilling Elettra.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2009 ****

“…there is no denying the intense theatrical charge of Jacobs's performance. He chooses mobile, natural-sounding tempi… The chorus… are as involved and incisive as Gardiner's Monteverdi Choir in the glorious music Mozart allots them, while the superb Freiburg Baroque Orchestra relish what David Cairns dubs the opera's "proto-Romantic exploitation of orchestral colour". Jacobs, like Gardiner and Mackerras, is unerringly responsive to the ways Mozart expresses the drama through harmony, rhythm and orchestral texture. ...the role of the tortured king is tricky to cast. Richard Croft is a subtle, sensitive artist, mellifluous of tone, refined of phrase. In plangent beauty of tone and passionate immediacy, Bernarda Fink's Idamante is at least the equal of Anne Sofie von Otter (Gardiner) and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (Mackerras)... this new version, beautifully recorded, at its best eclipses all corners in dramatic tension, not least in the magnificent, anguished account of the great Act 3 quartet.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2009

“Regazzo's brilliant diction and timing put him in the first rank…Pendatchanska's Elvira seemed in each of her appearances like a Fury descending not only on Giovanni, but on all the other characters too.” Opera, September 2006

“There is much to admire...especially from the playing of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra as primed by Jacobs's tensely dramatic phrasing and pacing…” The Guardian, 28th September 2007 ***

“Jacobs's recording of the 1788 Vienna version (with the discarded Prague numbers included in an appendix) is always exhilarating...I found its zest and mercurial spirit refreshing, often compelling.” The Telegraph, 20th October 2007

“If Jacobs is hardly the first modern conductor to present the opera in its 'original colours', his Don Giovanni is among the liveliest and most enjoyable on offer. It is certainly one of the most brilliantly played. The Freiburg band, forwardly balanced, are eager, involved participants in the drama. Mozart's wonderful woodwind commentaries are as pungent as you will hear, while rasping, minatory valveless brass and gunfire period timpani create a properly terrifying frisson in the Commendatore's retribution scene.
Jacobs being Jacobs, there are controversial things here. Tempi can suddenly spurt forward or slow down, usually – as in the opening scene – with dramatically exciting results. Both finales hurtle forward with thrilling impetus. Elsewhere speeds can sound a shade frenetic: in the Act 1 Quartet, for instance, or in Zerlina's two arias.
As in Jacobs's Figaro, the recitatives are done in a natural, conversational style, with fortepiano and cello adding their creative 'commentaries', like the instruments in the arias.
For Jacobs, Donna Elvira is the opera's central female character. Accordingly, he casts Anna with the relatively light-toned Olga Pasichnyk, who sings 'Non mi dir' tenderly and gracefully, and sounds more sorrowful than vengeful in 'Or sai chi l'onore' – a more vulnerable and more likeable figure than usual. Conversely, Alexandrina Pendatchanska's Elvira is as hysterically obsessive as any on disc, with a mingled desperation and tragic grandeur in her big Act 2 recitative: it's an exciting performance, certainly, though her phrasing can be disconcertingly gusty.
Smooth legato is hardly a priority for Johannes Weisser either. His Giovanni is less the sinister, demonic anti-hero, more an over-sexed, heedless young bounder with a taste for danger and a penchant for cruelty. He is casually seductive with Sunhae Im's coquettish, sweet-toned Zerlina, rapier-sharp in his exchanges with Leporello, where his youthful, tenorish timbre contrasts strongly with Lorenzo Regazzo's bass-baritone.
Regazzo's is a charismatic performance, never descending to caricature; his lubricious relish in the Catalogue aria does not preclude a hint of elegance. The mellifluous-toned Kenneth Tarver makes a sympathetic, concerned Ottavio, the Masetto is aptly sullen, the Commendatore amply imposing. But few could deny the zest, sweep and sheer theatrical charge of this recording.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“René Jacobs conducts a bitingly sharp account of Don Giovanni...the cast list does not sound distinguished, yet they make a superb team with no weak link, and Jacobs's speeds are sensible rather than exaggerated. The soloists all have fresh, clear, firm voices” Penguin Guide, 2010 ***

“A high-voltage performance with vivid characterisations” BBC Music Magazine, April 2009

“a performance of extraordinary clarity and immediacy, at once sharp in attack, yet intimate too. Here the drama is vividly conveyed, with words crystal clear..The cast of principals is excellent, with Mark Padmore at once mellifluous and commanding as the Emperor, always imaginative and animated” Penguin Guide, 2010 ****

“utterly compelling...the lyricism and simplicity of the arias and choruses is unparalleled” The Independent on Sunday *****

“It is good to read René Jacobs's passionate advocacy for Metastasio's dramaturgy; he openly acknowledges where he has taken some liberties with Mozart's score but it does not guarantee that all of his solutions are convincing, attractive or necessary. There are unequivocally good things on offer: Mark Padmore's smooth-toned Tito has unforced purity, his arias are eminently civilised and his two accompanied recitatives make the Emperor's anguish and inner conflict regarding his treasonous friend's fate transparent. Alexandrina Pendatchanska's dark timbre, dramatic conviction and ambitious ornaments in 'Deh se piacer mi vuoi' make her villainous Vitellia formidable... Bernarda Fink's plangent contributions capture Sesto's desperate struggle between honour and love.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2006

“René Jacobs always brings new ideas to the operas he conducts, and even to a work as familiar as Figaro he adds something of his own. First of all he offers an orchestral balance quite unlike what we are used to. Those who specially relish a Karajan or a Solti will hardly recognise the work, with its strongly wind-biased orchestral balance: you simply don't hear the violins as the 'main line' of the music. An excellent corrective to a tradition that was untrue to Mozart, to be sure, but possibly the pendulum has swung a little too far.
Jacobs is freer over tempo than most conductors.
The Count's authoritarian pronouncements are given further weight by a faster tempo: it gives them extra decisiveness, though the music then has to slow down. There are other examples of such flexibility, sometimes a shade disconcerting, but always with good dramatic point. The Count's Act 3 duet with Susanna is one example: the little hesitancies enhanced and pointed up, if perhaps with some loss in energy and momentum. Tempos are generally on the quick side of normal, notably in the earlier parts of the Act 2 finale; but Jacobs is willing to hold back, too, for example in the Susanna-Marcellina duet, in the fandango, and in the G major music at the dénouement where the Count begs forgiveness.
The cast is excellent. Véronique Gens offers a beautifully natural, shapely 'Porgi amor' and a passionate and spirited 'Dove sono'. The laughter in Patrizia Ciofi's voice is delightful when she's dressing up Cherubino, and she has space in 'Deh vieni' for a touchingly expressive performance.
Then there's Angelika Kirschlager's Cherubino, alive and urgent in 'Non so più', every little phrase neatly moulded. Lorenzo Regazzo offers a strong Figaro, with a wide range of voice – angry and determined in 'Se vuol ballare', nicely rhythmic with some softer colours in 'Non più andrai', and pain and bitterness in 'Aprite'. The Count of Simon Keenlyside is powerful, menacing, lean and dark in tone. Marie McLaughlin sings Marcellina with unusual distinction.
Strongly cast, imaginatively directed: it's a Figaro well worth hearing.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“René Jacobs conducts one of the refreshing versions of Figaro to be issued in many years...Véronique Gens is one of the most distinguished of Countesses, and Patrizia Ciofi is a sparkling Susanna, while Simon Keenlyside is a superb Count, well contrasted with the strongly acted Figaro of Lorenzo Regazzo.” Penguin Guide, 2010 ****