Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 39, 40 & 41

One of the finest sets of these works. Gorgeous playing and sound, with terrific clarity and articulation. Harnoncourt makes some unusual choices in 39 and 40 that set that apart from other versions of these that you may have--and they may not be first choice--but as always with Harnoncourt, rich, invigorating, intelligent and engaging.

Fantastic!

Nikolaus Harnoncourt is a risk taker, a starry-eyed moon shooter. As an artist his blazing intensity is matched by his Teutonic attention to detail. Descended from Holy Roman Emperors, he is not meek-hearted. When he fails, he does so spectacularly; but when he succeeds, he is transcendent. In these life-affirming performances, Harnoncourt and the Concentus Musicus Wien reveal vital elements that are often hidden beneath the surface of these three great works from Mozart's "Imperial" period.About Harnoncourt's Big Idea about these last symphonies being a "single" work, I am rather dubious. Certainly we know Mozart conceived of these works as a single opus (for publishing purposes), but there really is no hard evidence that he wrote three symphonies in three different keys as a single twelve movement work. Still, K.543, 550, and 551 share many common themes and are each exemplars of Mozart's late style. It makes sense to hear them together, whether as 3 distinct works or as a single entity.However, the real value in this recording is not in Harnoncourt's novel (and likely fatuous) idea, but in the performances themselves, which are uniformly excellent. NH is known for his "rough and ready" approach to Mozart. That grittiness is on display here, but crucially it seldom devolves into mannerisms - for the most part these renditions are intensely musical. Every phrase is important to Harnoncourt, yet he never loses sight of the whole. Whether one buys into the concept of an "Instrumental Oratorium" is not really important here - in the end you still have 12 cued tracks and can listen to the entire album as a single work or as 3 distinct symphonies without any difficulty.Harnoncourt's calling cards - forward woodwinds and brass, crystal clear textures, razor sharp phrasing, and bone-rattling intensity - are all present here. There is a rollicking rhythmic quality to all three. Of the 3, I was slightly troubled by some of Harnoncourt's choices in K.543: the minuet is played way, way too fast (the trio is an earthy delight - very vividly drawn and taken at a much slower pace than the minuet), while the main exposition theme of the opening movement is afflicted with silly pauses and oddball phrasing.Those qualms aside, this disc has many highlights. The finale of K.550 is sharply drawn, fiery, and richly textured. I never fully appreciated the rich counterpoint in K.550 until I heard this stunning performance. It is a rare thing indeed for a performance to reveal so much vital detail in any well-worn Warhorse in the standard repertoire. Yet Harnoncourt does just this - in all three symphonies - occasional silliness notwithstanding. Excepting K.543, Harnoncourt's rubato always seems musical, and those oddball pauses and rests for which he has sometimes been known are mostly suppressed. As a result, most of this disc sounds natural and organic - not contrived or showy.As expected, the Jupiter is explosively climactic. All repeats are observed, which some may find tedious. In the Jupiter at least, this has the effect of adding weight and scale to the work, which Harnoncourt intends as the grand finale to the triptych. The finale of K.551 has a lot of texture and bite. The brass - on all three symphonies but in the Jupiter in particular - really gets to shine.I do have a quibble with some of Harnoncourt's tempi choices (aside from the problems mentioned above with K.543, these eccentric moments really do feel musically valid, so I am picking nits here) - the slow movement of the Jupiter, in particular, is taken rather too quickly, although Harnoncourt still mines it for all the rich string and woodwind texture imbued its composer. Oddly enough, it is the Allegro of the same symphony that is taken surprisingly slow, but Harnoncourt makes it pay off splendidly as he uses the slower tempo to reveal the propulsive bass lines and rich textural details that power this movement up to its triumphant release of brass and timpani. The finale of K.551 is epic in scale and in character - Harnoncourt's architectonic focus and his heroic spirit combine for a Jupiter finale that is mind-blowingly intense and breathtakingly detailed. All three symphonies were recorded in the Musikverein, and the world-class acoustic is captured vividly on these discs.To put it simply, this a pretty solid effort - 2 out of the 3 symphonies qualify as top shelf Mozart. While Nikolaus Harnoncourt has had a few duds in his storied career, he has also scored some truly smashing successes. This is one of them.

I had high hopes for these after owning Savall's Mozart Requiem, and LvB Eroica. Both of those are super energetic, firey performances that are unlike anybody else's. These Mozart symphonies are tame, polite, and very middle-of-the-road performances of which, there are already dozens out there. What's more, the recorded sound is distant and foggy. If you want bold, energetic, and HIP, in better sound, go for Bruggen, or Mackerras (HIP influenced). Thank god for Amazon's generous return policy. I listened to the CDs and immediately sent them back for a full refund!

Good SACD, but compared to a recording of the Linn label, shows certain flaws in the recording.

I have no way of judging the validity of the claim made by the scholarship that underpins this set: that Mozart's last three symphonies constitute a single "Gesamtwerk" or "Instrumental Oratorium," as the CD label calls it. But the sound is very good, and the music is always alive. Especially rewarding are the instrumental textures of the original instruments of the Concentus Musicus Wien (CMW), the group that Harnoncourt founded about half-a-century ago. Unless you're averse to such sound, which lacks the smoothness or "polish" of modern instruments, you should revel in the variety of textures that give the instruments and instrumental groups a distinctive character that is lost in more blended modern-instrument sound. Also, the engineers have given all the orchestral groups a presence in the aural picture, so moment by moment we are listening to very arresting combinations of sound, and one doesn't get the sense that at one moment the strings and at another the woodwind, for example, is carrying the expressive load -- rather, it's all the instruments all the time.What about the performances? First of all, I was struck by the fact that most of the movements are at moderate speed, despite the tempo markings like "vivace" or "molto." The quicker movements sound a bit slower than usual, and the slower ones a bit quicker. This might be a problem for some listeners, but I didn't mind it. It created a sense of a ceremonial occasion, and, more important, Harnoncourt's insistence on a strong rhythmic foundation mitigated any sense of turgidity. I was reminded of Klemperer's Beethoven or of Bohm's Brahms: the rhythm was the basis of the thing, and the vivid textures and variety of phrasing and dynamics added to the life of the whole. There were places in the final movement of the K. 550 where the pauses were longer than the break between the final movement of K. 453 and the opening of K. 550 -- Harnoncourt obviously making a point, but it worked!I don't say that this is the only recording of these symphonies that you need. It is idiosyncratic, and Mackerras, Szell, and Bohm (and others) are all worth hearing. But what it isn't is boring or routine. It's alive, and the sound is wonderful.

Harnoncourt should listen and follow the way Lenny does.

In few words...is a Vienesse joke.