Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major, K551 'Jupiter'

Herbert von Karajan (1908–1989) was one of the greatest conductors of the twentieth century. Born in Salzburg, he made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1934. In 1946 Karajan gave his first post-war concert in Vienna with that orchestra, and in 1949 he became artistic director of the city’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. He also conducted at La Scala in Milan, but his most prominent activity at this time was recording with the newly formed Philharmonia Orchestra in London, helping to build them into one of the world’s finest.

In 1955 he was appointed music director for life of the Berlin Philharmonic as successor to Wilhelm Furtwängler. From 1957 to 1964 he was artistic director of the Vienna State Opera. Karajan was closely involved with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Salzburg Festival. He continued to perform, conduct and record prolifically until his death in 1989, mainly with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic.

This 2CD set preserves the exact concert that took place at the Royal Festival Hall on 6 April 1962, including the British and Austrian national anthems.

It is sourced from the Music Preserved archive.

The combination of Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic playing Mozart and Bruckner drew a ‘packed and raving audience’ according to Neville Cardus in The Guardian.

The Bruckner Symphony No.7 received great acclaim from the Daily Telegraph, with a review headlined ‘Noble Height in Bruckner: Vibrant Vienna Philharmonic’, and the critic Donald Mitchell writing ‘London has not heard a Bruckner performance of this quality for years’. Mitchell went on to add that the music-making was ‘undoubtedly touched by interpretative genius’.

In his booklet essay, Richard Osborne notes that ‘the performances of both Mozart and Bruckner are quicker here than any of Karajan’s studio performances … they are also freer in places and given to a number of astonishing build-ups of power’.

Conducting the musicians of the Freiburger Barockorchester, René Jacobs offers us a chance to rediscover two symphonies of ‘classic' status, originally released in 2007.

When compared to the many German conductors whose discographical archives have in recent years been rediscovered enthusiastically, Eugen Jochum has been somewhat left behind. And this is despite his having left his mark on two of the world’s leading orchestras of both his day and ours, for he was chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich and later of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. And he was furthermore one of the hand-picked group of conductors who re-founded the Bayreuth Festival in the years after the Second World War. Nor was Jochum successful just with Wagner or Bruckner, but also with contemporary works and with 'classics' in the truest sense of the word. In short, his repertoire was all-encompassing.

The trilogy of the last Mozart symphonies that he recorded with the Bamberg Symphony in 1982 offers eloquent testimony of his style of music-making, which had nothing trendy about it, but was timeless and captivating. Neither in his dynamics nor in his tempi did Jochum seek the extremes that some of his colleagues did but when it came to clarity and variety of the orchestral voices and colours, Jochum was supreme. The Jupiter Symphony KV551 is convincing in its cheerful exuberance, just as are the two previous symphonies from the year 1788. The dark colours of the G-minor Symphony KV550 and the slow introduction of the E-flat Symphony KV543 are played in a manner that audibly emphasises their proximity to the music of the Magic Flute, and they remain fixed in one’s memory.

This re-issue as a digipak for the price of a single CD is topped up with the rarely heard Masonic Funeral Music KV477, which is particularly moving here – another, highly expressive late work by Mozart that was written in honour of two brethren who died in 1785. It corresponds perfectly to Jochum’s approach to the Salzburg master – serious and without any airs and graces – and it forms a fine close to this welcome re-acquaintance with Jochum’s art.

SDG is proud to release its first Mozart CD, recorded live at Cadogan Hall.

This album made the headlines in 2006 as the UK’s first classical “on the night” recording. CDs were made during the second part of the concert for the audience to take home after the concert. This is the first time this CD is commercially released.

Symphonies 39 & 49 are among the last composed by Mozart. They use the full eighteenth-century orchestra, complete with trumpets and timpani.

Symphony 39 (K543) shows Mozart at his most exalted in the orchestral passages, while some passages remain intimate and touching, with more delicate themes. The Minuet features the orchestra’s guest artists, the clarinets, in a waltz-like Trio.

The “Jupiter”, Mozart’s final symphony (no 41, K551), belongs to a sequence of grand ceremonial works in C major.

Typically for Mozart it juxtaposes a number of different contrasting musical characters and ideas, from the formal and aristocratic to the heartfelt and soulful.

In the finale, the composer’s compositional virtuosity is on display. Through the whole runs an extraordinary spirit, a mixture of intellectual excitement, the feeling of a grand design, and a sense of fun.

The Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra is one of Austria’s leading symphony orchestras and Ivor Bolton has been principal conductor since 2004. Their main focus is on the music of the Viennese Classical School. Bolton is being interviewed for Gramophone Magazine.

This live performance was given by the Orchestra Libera Classica under their chief conductor Hidemi Suzuki to celebrate its 6th birthday. Although a very young orchestra it already has the reputation as being one of the finest in the world in this repertoire.