The Mozart year

Jack Balkin blogs on his favorite Mozart recordings. Go have a look. I note with pleasure that he includes many recordings by Colin Davis, who I think is the finest Mozart conductor of his generation. His readings may seem old-fashioned in this day of period performance practice, but Davis could be counted on to get many things just right, including finding just the right tempo to articulate the melody and rhythm in such a way to make Mozart's phrases come to life. Just one example: In the C minor Mass, at the end of the first statement of the Hosanna, Davis doesn't slow down at the end of the "Excelsis". This has the effect of making the silence afterwards, before the Benedictus, full of possibilities instead of just another silence at the end of a final cadence. Many of Davis's early Mozart recordings are not available on CD, and it would be nice to have them. I mention only a few:

Oboe Concerto (Leon Goossens) (RCA);
Symphonies 29 and 39 (RCA)
Symphonies 28 and 38 (L'oisseau Lyre)
Symphonies 39 and 40 with the LSO (Philips)
Symphonies 38 and 41 with the LSO (Philips)

His beautiful recording of the Solemn Vespers of the Confessor, K339, with Kiri Te Kanawa is set to be released at budget price this month. Don't miss it.

Oh, one last thing. As good as Davis is with the Mozart operas, Jacobs has done what 9/11 was supposed to have done: changed everything.

Jack Balkin's Mozart list