Mozart: Symphony No. 36 in C major, K425 'Linz'

“Even though the earlier symphonies lack the maturity and startling grandeur of the Prague and the Jupiter, Mackerras manages to wring every last drop from them, and the SCO's glorious playing is enhanced by Linn's admirable recording technique...Highly recommended.” The Observer, 7th March 2010

“There's a clarity to the acoustic as recorded in Glasgow's City Halls, which Mackerras uses to his advantage, instinctively bringing out telling inner lines...there's so much to enjoy on these discs - armfuls of wit and humanity...and vivacity aplenty too in the Haffner and Linz.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2010

“The Haffner is the king of this pack. Mackerras explores its shapes and textures with particular care. Opening and closing movements crackle with electricity. Everything comes stamped with character, intelligence and beauty.” The Times, 12th March 2010

“the Haffner and Linz are magisterial accounts of much-recorded music. Mackerras seems to find exactly the right tempo for each movement — the deliciously witty presto finale of the Haffner goes with irresistible zing — and revels in the festive spirit of the big outer movements” Sunday Times, 14th March 2010

“Clarity prevails, and animation. These are the kind of performances that make it difficult for the listener to sit still. One is impelled to pace or even dance around, to gesture and nod...when you are in a get-up-and-go frame of mind, Mackerras is the man, with rhythm and vigour to the fore.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2010 ****

“ For all their rhythmic life and variety, and the sheer joie de vivre that is so infectious in so much of the playing, Mackerras's interpretations may occasionally be too matter-of-fact and raw-edged for some tastes...though to counterbalance that, it's hard to imagine the final climax of Symphony No 36, the Linz, more conclusively or majestically presented.” The Guardian, 15th April 2010 ****

“Never less than honeyed in tone, the strings use vibrato sparingly, as a subtle colouring device rather than a wearisome all-purpose wash. Speeds are consistently spritely (but never gabbled), textures are wonderfully clear, wind and brass vibrant.” Graham Rogers, bbc.co.uk, 16th March 2010

“a terrific performance.” Gramophone

“Giulini appears to have taken Mozart's festive and eloquent Linz Symphony into his repertory when he was in his mid-50s, though as we know from his unsurpassed recording of Don Giovanni, his interpretations which arrived, as it were, out of the blue, always came fully formed.This live 1982 Proms performance (Giulini made no commercial recording of the Linz) is a joy to hear: vital, companionable, generous-spirited.
The celebrated recording which Bruno Walter made, with attendant rehearsal sequences, with the Columbia SO in 1955 for CBS was very similar.
Indeed, that may well have been Giulini's model (he had greatly admired Walter's conducting when he played under him in Rome's Augusteo Orchestra in the 1930s). 'Authenticists' will no doubt sniff at the full-bodied sonorities here (did Mozart dream of anything less?) and the non-antiphonal disposition of the violins, though they would be ill-advised to do so. Rarely has the symphony's important second violin part been as carefully, or as eloquently, attended to as here.
And, of course, Giulini knows the symphony's anatomical make-up as well as anyone. At the technical level, this is a wonderfully articulated performance, with clean yet pliant rhythms (the work's trade-mark trills tautly but expressively attended to), and well terraced wind and string sonorities. The only thing to be regretted is an exposition repeat in the finale.
The Brahms could not be more different.
Recorded at the 1962 Edinburgh Festival in dry, immediate, somewhat acidulous mono sound, it bears about as much relation to the Mozart as a Fragonard landscape does to a grainy black-andwhite photograph of Berlin after the blitz. This is a quite literally terrific performance. The physiognomy is recognisably that of Giulini's three studio recordings: powerful, imposing, superbly sculpted.
What those recordings don't have is the sense of a performance taking shape in the shadow of an apocalypse. So great is the tension, Giulini even moves the finale's big tune on at a half-decent pace, something he was generally loath to do.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“This live 1982 Proms performance (Giulini made no commercial recording of the Linz) is a joy to hear: vital, companionable, generous-spirited. The Brahms… is a quite literally terrific performance. The physiognomy is recognisably that of Giulini's three studio recordings: powerful, imposing, superbly sculpted. What those recordings... don't have is the sense of a performance taking shape in the shadow of an apocalypse. So great is the tension, Giulini even moves the finale's big C major tune on at a half-decent pace, something he was generally loath to do.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2006