Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Youth Symphonies (Freiburg Baroque Orchestra)

Information

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

• (01) Symphony in E flat major, K. 16
• (04) Five Contredanses, K. 609: No. 2 in E flat major
• (05) Symphony in D major, K. 19
• (08) Five Contredanses, K. 609: No. 3 in D major
• (09) Symphony in F major, K. Anh. 223/19a
• (12) Five Contredanses, K. 609: No. 1 in C major
• (13) Symphony in B flat major, K. 22
• (16) Five Contredanses, K. 609: No. 4 in C major
• (17) Symphony in G major, K. Anh. 221/45a
• (20) Five Contredanses, K. 609: No. 5 in G major

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Gottfried von der Goltz, concertmaster

Date: 2019
Label: Aparté

https://www.apartemusic.com/albums/mozart-youth-symphonies/

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Review

The catalogue numbers may suggest otherwise, but this disc gathers the four earliest known symphonies by the young Mozart, along with one from a little later. The 19th-century complete edition of his works, compiled by Breitkopf & Härtel, numbered the symphonies up to No 41 but subsequent scholarly wrangling has discounted some and discovered others – which is, for example, the reason we often hear Symphonies Nos 36 and 38 but never No 37, which turns out to be by Michael Haydn, with only the slow introduction a later addition by Mozart.

Thus Symphony No 1, K16, is commonly accepted as Mozart’s First Symphony, although there are reasons to suggest that there was a still earlier work, now lost. (No 2, K17, is now attributed more firmly to Mozart père while No 3, K18, is a copy by the boy of a symphony by CF Abel.) No 4, K19, was written shortly after K16 in London, with K19a following a few months later in Holland; its owes its lack of a B&H number to the fact that the complete score was only discovered as recently as the 1980s. No 5, K22, comes from The Hague at the end of 1765 and the Alte Lambach from the following year.

They come around on disc fairly regularly – more so than comparable works by Haydn – but rarely played with such élan as here. The Freiburgers make the now classic period-instrument set by the Academy of Ancient Music (L’Oiseau-Lyre) sound pale in comparision: a testament to the advances over the past three or four decades in the marshalling of recalcitrant ‘ancient’ instruments.

When treated with such seriousness of intent, these works reveal the astonishing speed with which Mozart, even before his 10th birthday, was able to absorb prevailing trends and write with style, taste and an unerring ear for effect: some of the slow movements, especially, display a depth and sensitivity that eluded composers four or five times his age in the 1760s. Horns and oboes give colour and contour to the music, while a continuo harpsichord is fairly prominent. The symphonies are punctuated with five contredanses Mozart composed for noble entertainments at the other end of his short life – a juxtaposition that seems surprisingly natural. The only criticism to be made is that the statue depicted in the cover art is a Ukrainian example rather than the one in Orange Square in Chelsea, just a short walk away from the house in Ebury Street where Mozart composed his first symphonies.

-- David Threasher, Gramophone

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 in Salzburg – 5 December 1791 in Vienna) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. Till his death in Vienna, he composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. Mozart is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence is profound on subsequent Western art music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart

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Freiburger Barockorchester (Freiburg Baroque Orchestra) is a German orchestra founded in 1987 and consists of 29 musicians as core members. In addition to Baroque music, the orchestra has performed works by composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Weber, and contemporary music. The orchestra mostly play without a conductor, but has two Artistic Managers of equal status (Gottfried von der Goltz and Petra Müllejans), who alternately manage individual projects. The orchestra also performs with guest conductors such as Ivor Bolton, René Jacobs, Philippe Herreweghe, Pablo Heras-Casado and Trevor Pinnock.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiburger_Barockorchester

http://www.barockorchester.de/

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