Mackerras: Mozart – Serenada “Gran Partita” (FLAC)

Orchestra: Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Conductor: Charles Mackerras
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Audio CD
SPARS Code: DDD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (image+cue)
Label: Telarc
Size: 210 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes

01. Largo; Allegro Molto
02. Menuetto; TrioI; Trio II
03. III. Adagio
04. IV. Menuetto: Allegretto: Trio II; Trio II
05. V. Romanze: Adagio; Allegretto; Adagio
06. VI. Thema Mit Variationen
07. VII. Rondo: Allegro Molto

One of the Most Beautiful Pieces of Music Ever Given a Beautiful Performance.

Like many, I’m sure I fell in love with this piece (and Mozart’s music in general) after watching the film Amadeus. Salieri’s vivid and tear jerking description of The Gran Partita’s adagio never fails to send shiver down my spine when I hear it: “On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse – bassoons and basset horns – like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly – high above it – an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I’d never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing a voice of God.”

Well, that was several years ago that I first saw the film and now I’m the proud owner of the Philips Complete Mozart Edition yet I still always find myself buying Mozart Cd’s of works that I truly love (can one have enough of such great music?). It goes without saying that The Gran Partita, Mozart’s 10th Serenade is one the best works of his earlier period (basically anything before K. 400 or so) and actually one of his best pieces of music period.

This performance pretty much does everything absolutely right. I can’t help but think this is the exact music Salieri would’ve heard in his head when he said that quote. And even after hearing it hundreds of times I literally melt every time the adagio plays. But the rest of movements are just as close to perfection. I must say that this version even bests the one in the Complete Mozart Edition, but I’m glad I have both.

In short, I highly recommend this to anyone who loves Mozart and this piece in particular. I do wish they would’ve put another work on hear to compliment the Gran Partita though. Perhaps the Haffner Serenade or even Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Despite the absense of any other work you still definitely get your money’s worth form what’s here. Highly recommended.