Comp Syms: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Amazon.ca: Music

Product Description

Amazon.com essential recording

This was the set that really got the "authentic instrument" craze going. It was a big, ambitious project that promised a fresh look at familiar music, as well as lots of exciting new discoveries. Christopher Hogwood tailored his forces to match what we know of the actual size and constitution of the orchestras of the period, and since Mozart wrote symphonies in every country in Europe, including England, France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, the result is practically a blueprint of 18th-century orchestral practice. Then everyone else got into the act, and these performances sort of fell off the musical map. Listening to them again, one finds they hold up rather well. There's still the sense of discovery, and of course the music itself is glorious. At budget price, this is history in sound. --David Hurwitz

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Stellar, Nov 4 2004

By

Peggy (Montreal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Comp Syms (Audio CD)

With wonderful precision, they manage to bring out the real fire present in all of Mozart's symphonies, (even the earliest). And they manage to maintain this high quality consistently through ALL of those 40+ symphonies. The AAM and Hogwood make every effort to recreate these works as Mozart would have heard them. Possibly one of the most massive undertakings ever done, this is a must for anyone interested in the complete classical canon, especially that of Mozart.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Ok, but...., Jun 30 2004

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James Robertson (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Comp Syms (Audio CD)

I will qualify this review by saying that I have not by any means listened to every single symphony on this recording. I listened to several of the symphonies from this set for a conducting class, and spent a considerable amount of time comparing them with other recordings for phrase structure, dynamics, etc. My conclusion:

Overall, I am personally just not impressed by Hogwood. His handling of the phrases is rough, and the music just doesn't seem polished. Occasionally the balance is questionable (for example, several clarinet passages in the first movement of the 39th stick out), and at other points I get the impression that he put little planning into the organization of strong and weak bars. Perhaps it is mostly personal preference, but other conductors really do sound better.

I think that this recording has its place, as there are few boxed sets of all of Mozart's symphonies available, and certainly there was some groundbreaking period instrument work here. I would, however, strongly recommend that anyone considering purchasing this set actually obtain a copy first from a library to decide if this is really what they want.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A milestone set, and worthy of all praise, April 28 2004

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R. Lane (Tracy, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Comp Syms (Audio CD)

In the 1970s, the Hungarian conductor Antal Dorati recorded all of the 104 symphonies of Franz Joseph Haydn (Amazon asin # B0000042DP). The era of "epic" integral collections was ignited. Many thought the vast majority of Haydn's symphonies would be boring, cookie-cutter works rolled out in almost assembly-line fashion. But Dorati, with excellent help from the Haydn scholar H. C. Robbins Landon, would disprove all of that, and show that there is not a dud in the whole collection. And Dorati's readings have stood the test of time.

Dorati's achievement marked the beginning of an ea that in the next 2 decades would see complete integral sets of the works of every major composer, culminating ultimately in the 1980s with Phiips complete Mozart Edition.

Shortly after Dorati finished his massive project, the Academy of Ancient Music embarked on a complete traversal of all of the "symphonies" of Mozart on period instruments, the currently reviewed item. Not just the traditional 41, but also many lesser know works. More fascinating music was unearthed. But, the milestone of this set is not the discovery of forgotten masterpieces. That had become a common daily occurence. It was the period instrument movement instead that was set free by Hogwood's achievement. With this project, Hogwood did for period instruments what Dorati did for integral cycles of lesser known works. The period instrument movement had been around for a long time. But it never quite could hit "mainstream" until Hogwood made these recordings. And ever since, period instruments have flourished.

There are better recordings of many of the works in this set, both on period instruments and conventional instruments. But the consistency that runs through the set brings an appreciation for Mozart's Symphonies that is unparallelled.

The set is competitively priced, the sound is very good throughout, there is decent documentation.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent cycle, but Pinnock's is better.
4 stars for a fine performance on authentic instruments by Hogwood/AAM, but for me 5 stars goes to Pinnock/English Concert for its superior sound. Read more

Published on Sep 30 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars stunning sound, superb attention to detail
This box set is an extraordinary addition to a person's collection. The AAM and Hogwood make every effort to recreate these works as Mozart would have heard them. Read more