259 SACD / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphonies KV 543 „No. 39“, KV 551 „Jupiter“
Description
Yoopy! - there is a new recording of Mozart opus 551 - oops, KV 551 - and KV 543! - Some reviewers shake their heads. "Yet another one!". - Well ("Hey, guys" Gordan Nikolić always says), I'm sorry, that's the way it is with TACET, again and again known works. You have to get through there. Fortunately, these two are so devilishly good that centuries after their creation they still knock people who have an antenna for it off their feet. Wait a minute, antennas, did they already exist back then? Anyway, you know what I mean. Silly? Yeah, silly. Who would say that Mozart wasn't occasionally silly? Here too? And bold, cheeky! The way he quasi throws down the last movement of the Jupiter symphony like a gauntlet at the feet of his contemporaries is inimitable. Unfortunately, you can't see it on this SACD when the bassoons and cellos laugh up their sleeves, but you can hear it all the better. What contrasts! After the bright beginning with timpani and trumpets, the second movement comes from a completely different world. "Con sordino", seductively and gently Gordan Nikolic and the girls and guys of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra caress the ears. And so it goes on and on. Same with the E flat major symphony. Yes, but aren't there already many wonderful recordings of these works? Yes there are. But as is the case with Mozart, the most famous interpreters can fail and the least known can hit the mark. Decide yourself. Also with sound there is always headroom upwards just as on the Richter scale, upwardly open. Speaking of sound, during the recording the orchestra sat in a circle around Mozart, similar to the other symphonies in this series. Native TACET Real Surround Sound. Sit down with him, right in the middle!
4 reviews for 259 SACD / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphonies KV 543 „No. 39“, KV 551 „Jupiter“
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Klassik heute –
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True "surround", i.e. an enclosing room sound, develops when - as can be seen on the back CD cover - the musicians of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra sit in a circle during the recording. You can hear that this is not just a gag: Outstanding transparency, transparency of the overall sound with simultaneous instrumental fanning out of the orchestral sound, extremely well-balanced strings and winds, and the organic embedding of the timpani are the result. "Embedding" is almost literally true here: one almost never hears the timpani so softly bedded, so variable in "touch" (as one would say with a pianist), i.e., in the attack and so supporting the interpretation.
To anticipate the critical question right away: Why does the Jupiter Symphony, Mozart's final word in the matter of symphonies and the crowning of the triad of the last three symphonies, come at the beginning and the beginning of the triad, i.e. the E-flat Major Symphony, at the end? This is not conclusive.
A philosophical game
However, the playing of the musicians, led by the co-playing violinist Gordan Nikolić, is conclusive. The violins in particular bring to life the problem that musicologist and conductor Peter Gülke has written about the beginning of the E-flat major symphony ("Triumph der neuen Tonkunst. Mozart späte Symphonien und ihr Umfeld"): "Part of the paradox of any beginning is that, suspended between absence and presence of the object, it must reflect the weight of the thing that is beginning, but not already the thing itself." In other words, am I beginning or am I beginning something? When I begin, I always begin something at the same time. That's where "premonitions, allusions and other forms of musical not-yet offer themselves," Gülke continues. This is exemplified by the searching and wandering violins immediately after the pathetic full E-flat major sound, culminating in a sharpened seventh chord: The beginning as the beginning of everything. Almost like a beginning of the world. And doesn't the beginning of the world in Wagner's Rheingold also begin with a deep Ur-Es-Dur-Gewoge?
Naturally flowing tempi
One feels urged to ask such philosophical questions when listening to the orchestra's lovingly precise playing, filled with questions and meanings. The tempi chosen are moderately swinging, naturally flowing, never prevailing an overdramatization addicted to exaggeration and surprise. The secondary theme of the first movement of the E-flat major symphony sounds very cantabile and is enlivened with a light vibrato, as a clear contrast to the sublime blockiness of the main theme.
And again the searching beginning in the second movement, followed by an enjoyably savored question and answer game, all presented with joy and mixed in with it something like chaste shyness: the approach to the secret of music. The musicians set out in search of this secret, aware that they would lose it if they thought they had found it.
Lucid transparency
The Andante in the Jupiter Symphony flows and sings broadly, and is animated gesturally; the sforzati do not come as hammer blows, but rather as swelling outbursts. Lucid transparency then prevails in the final movement of the Jupiter Symphony, one hears every little structure-giving figure of the flute, the energy pool is replenished again and again, so that the C major joy seems endless.
Rainer W. Janka
Audio –
(...) Nikolic takes both [symphonies] for what they are: musical masterpieces of unrivaled beauty. They seem much more intimate in light garb, much more delicate than in philharmonic brocade - if they are played by such masterly musicians. Tacet's RSS reproduces them in a circle with the wind instruments, but this is also quite wonderful to hear in normal stereo.
Lothar Brandt
Classical CD Choice –
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Once again, Tacet undertakes its commendable mission to place the listener firmly in the centre of a sympathetic and pointed performances, this time of two of Mozart’s most popular symphonies. If the performances do not unseat such well-loved readings in the SACD field as those of Charles Mackerras, they are still delivered with great attention to detail, and the recording palette is sui generis for this company.
Barry Forshaw
Pizzicato –
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Mozart in light clothing
Now let’s get Jupiter down from his Olympus, Gordan Nikolic must have said to himself as he conducted Mozart’s 41st Symphony into the Tacet microphones set up around him. The recording is Real Surround Sound, which means the listener sits in the middle of the music and hears the strings in front, the winds more in the middle, and the bright winds even more in the back. The effect is enchanting, as it displays the sound very clearly.
But let’s get to the interpretation. Nikolic strips it of all solemnity, all pomp, and conducts lightly and casually. No, not in the way you might think. His tempos are not fast and rushing, on the contrary, but it is the textures that make the symphony youthful and fresh.
In the 39th Symphony, the conductor does no differently, serving us a fresh and buoyant interpretation in the fast movements. The particularly gentle and lovely Andante is also remarkable.
Remy Franck