Mozart: Symphony No. 32 in G major, K318 (Overture in the Italian Style)

Mozart’s Symphonies Nos. 13-16 date from a period when the composer was devoting a great deal of his time to symphonic writing, and are particularly interesting from the light they shed on his gradual moulding of the essentially lightweight opera sinfonia to the weightier symphonic manner of Haydn and his Viennese contemporaries. They were penned when he was just fifteen! The last two symphonies on this recording date from after Mozarts’ return home in March 1773 from the third Italian sojourn, during which Wolfgang’s opera Lucio Silla was premiered in Milan. They mark a return to the Italianate overture-symphony, without minuets and largely lacking the repeated sections characteristic of the Germanic concert-symphony.

This 2CD set represents all the Mozart symphonies – eleven in all – that Neville Marriner and the Academy recorded for Argo from 1968–71. He was later to re-record some of these works for Philips, in much-praised performances, but the freshness and vitality of these earlier recordings, shared between London’s Kingsway Hall and St. John’s, Smith Square, have an allure of their own.

The multi-award-winning partnership of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras is reunited in this second collection of Mozart Symphonies featuring Nos 29, 31 (Paris), 32, 35 (Haffner) & 36 (Linz)’. This much anticipated recording follows on from the astounding success of ‘Mozart Symphonies 38 – 41’ which resulted in him winning the Critics’ Award at the 2009 BRIT Awards and led to ’Mozart Symphonies 38-41’ being named Disc of the Year at the 2009 BBC Music Magazine Awards.

This recording includes both versions of the 2nd movement of the Paris Symphony; unusually Sir Charles requested that the alternative version follows the original, rather than coming at the end of the album as an appendix.

An obsessive musical researcher, Sir Charles merged his considerable knowledge of these works with scores and parts he has been editing from available sources for years for this recording.

Sir Charles Mackerras has won widespread praise for his fresh, vibrant and youthful Mozart performances, which was named the classical recording of 2008 by the Sunday Times and HMV Choice. It also won a 2009 Midem Award for Symphonic Works and a Choc de l’année Award from Le Monde de la Musique.

This recording re-unites the award-winning team, including producer James Mallinson, who has just been nominated for a Grammy award.

Sir Charles Mackerras, the SCO’s Conductor Laureate, has produced numerous award-winning recordings, performed fifty times at the Edinburgh Festival and in 2005 was the first recipient of the ‘Queen’s Medal for Music’.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra has a large UK-based fan base following performances throughout Scotland and regular appearances at the Edinburgh, St Magnus and Aldeburgh Festivals, the BBC Proms and on BBC Radio 3.

Some of Mozart's lesser known symphonies are integrated for this Mozart/Maag release, with mono recordings of Nos. 28, 29, 34 (among the earliest of Maag's Decca recordings) coupled with stereo recordings of the Symphony No. 32 and the delectable Serenata Notturna. Everywhere, style, finesse and charm are evident in these performances.

However spectacular the Salzburg Festival may be, and however indebted to international stars, it is also remarkable for the sense of continuity it has shown over the years. This is a fact tinged with melancholy when one considers the half-century in which Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau played a determining role at the Festival as singer, reciter and as conductor. His last concert in Salzburg, in which he conducted the Mozarteum Orchestra, is now available in the CD series FESTIVAL DOCUMENTS. In a concert devoted entirely to Mozart, the pianist Konstantin Lifschitz was not just a soloist but a real partner in dialogue in the Piano Concerto K 456. The concert begins in solemn fashion with the Adagio and Fugue K 546 and ends in elation with the “Italian” Symphony K 202.

Irena Grafenauer and François Leleux are two internationally renowned woodwind soloists, who emerged from the ranks of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. The 1981 recording of the Flute Concerto K. 313 with the Slovenian soloist Irena Grafenauer is an item of very special value in the Symphonieorchester’s discography, because it is one of the few recordings with the great Günter Wand on the conductor’s podium. François Leleux ranks today as one of the most sought-after oboe soloists in the world. This CD presents him in 2001 with Mozart’s Oboe Concerto accompanied by “his” orchestra, in which he held the position of principal oboist until 2005, with Sir Colin Davis, the long-standing Chief Conductor of the orchestra. The live recording of the short, one-movement Symphony K. 318, which conjures up the atmosphere of an Italian opera in the concert hall, was made during Colin Davis’s early years as Chief Conductor of the orchestra.

Irena Grafenauer and Frençois Leleux, two internationally renowned soloists, who emerged from the ranks of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.

One of the few available CDs with Günter Wand on the conductor’s podium of the Symphonieorchester.

Both soloists were prize-winners at the ARD International Music Competition (1979 and 1991).