Mozart wrote his first symphony on the age of eight when, already a famend prodigy, he was on a go to to London as a part of a European tour. Whereas maybe not a masterpiece, it has vim and aptitude. He accomplished the final, No 41 in C main, K551 “Jupiter”, in 1788, three years earlier than his dying on the age of 35. The primary of a brand new collection of Mozart symphonies on disc, The Beginning and the End (Aparté), contains each works, performed by the interval instrument group Il Pomo d’Oro. Maxim Emelyanychev, greatest recognized within the UK as principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducts these effervescent, brisk performances, with fleet string figures and ripe, punchy woodwind. He’s additionally the soloist, enjoying fortepiano, in Mozart’s pIano concerto No 3 in A serious, K488 (attention-grabbing to check with the revivified – in abeyance for years – complete Mozart piano concerto cycle with fortepianist Robert Levin and the Academy of Historical Music). For those who choose a extra opulent sound for Mozart, this received’t be for you. I discovered it engrossing.
As director of the choir of St John’s School, Cambridge, Andrew Nethsingha – now organist and master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey – turned an already first-class choir into an exemplary, adventurous ensemble. The greater than two dozen discs they recorded collectively throughout his 15-year tenure have robust thematic form (in addition to, of their elegant black packaging, a unifying visible identification). In Magnificat 3 (Signum), their third disc of night canticles, the choir sings settings of the liturgically paired Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis. Composers embody Charles Villiers Stanford, George Dyson and Herbert Howells, in addition to these presently working: Bryan Kelly (b.1934) and Philip Moore (b.1943).
Studying the booklet notes, it turns into clear that the alternatives, just like the composers themselves, are interlinked. These contrasting works, embracing solo writing and full-bodied, lavish textures, give the choir the prospect to show their heat sound and flexibility. They do, wholeheartedly.
