Anna Netrebko once again triumphed at the 2006 Salzburg Festival with her winning portrayal of Susanna in Claus Guth's new production of Le nozze di Figaro, the highlights of which can be heard on this spectacular CD. Led by conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt with the Vienna Philharmonic, this production of Figaro garnered critical acclaim: "Guth and Harnoncourt have opened up a new perspective on an opera that is normally staged as a lightweight, turbulent farce," wrote the Zeit Online, while Die Welt described Harnoncourt as "a sorcerer able to conjure up magical sounds."

Believed to have been composed between August 1775 and January 1777, the Concerto In E Flat Major for two pianos technically counts as being the tenth of Mozart's twenty-seven concertos, that huge and prodigious body that would set the standards for all piano concertos from Mozart's time forward. Although it is not performed with the same frequency as his later works (especially the final eight concertos, 20-27), this "Double" piano concerto, believed to have been composed by Mozart for performance by him and his sister Maria Anna ("Nannerl"), is nevertheless a fascinating experiment of Mozart's, one that requires a pair of solid keyboard virtuosos to do (and for the composer's Seventh piano concerto, you needed three soloists).

Throughout this Warner Classics six disc set one remains impressed with Harnoncourt’s tightly controlled direction of his magnificent forces, employing tempi that always feel appropriate. The sound quality is of a high standard as is the interesting and informative annotation. A valuable set of Haydn sacred music that is perfect for dipping in and out.

Mozarts Große Messe, KV 427, ist Fragment geblieben und gehört dennoch zu den eindrucksvollsten Werken geistlicher Musik in Europa. Der Salzburger Meister folgt hier den Messemodellen Bachs (und Händels). Auch Spuren der italienischen Gesangstradition lassen sich erkennen, vor allem was die Ausarbeitung der Sopranpartien betrifft. Frieder Bernius, in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Musikwissenschaftler Uwe Wolf, hat den Mut, der ausgedehnten Diskographie zu dieser Messe eine weitere Einspielung hinzuzufügen (Kammerchor Stuttgart/Hofkapelle Stuttgart). Das Besondere an dieser Aufnahme ist der aus Praxis, theoretischen und musikhistorischen Überlegungen gespeiste Versuch, eine sehr diskret ergänzte Fassung dieser Messe vorzulegen.

This was, at one time, the most popular piece of music that Haydn composed. It was originally written as a series of eight slow movements (an introduction, then the seven "words") and a final "earthquake" designed to be performed in a Spanish church during Holy Week. So famous did the music become that some hack made a vocal version of the work, which Haydn felt he could do much better himself. So he created this oratorio, as well as making (or approving) arrangements for string quartet and solo piano! For the vocal version, he divided the work into two parts and added a stunning introduction to the second part for wind band alone.

Go ahead, play rough and tough with Beethoven. He can take it: he's made of marble and stone and it'd take more than a couple hardcore eccentrics to ruin his reputation. This is not to say that gard-core eccentrics Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Nikolaus Harnoncourt don't give it their best shot. Like their earlier recording of the complete Piano Concertos of Beethoven, Aimard and Harnoncourt do what they like with his Triple Concerto, Rondo in B flat major, and Choral Fantasy to consistently terrible results. With violinist Thomas Zehetmair and cellist Clemens Hagen, Aimard and Harnoncourt turn in an ungainly and graceless recording of the graceful and gracious Triple Concerto.

This zippy ballet is early Beethoven–the only work of its type that he ever wrote. It dates from the same time as the First Symphony, which is around 1800, and is noteworthy in two other respects: it's the only piece of orchestral music that Beethoven ever wrote that uses a harp (I know–big deal–but from such trivia are music snobs made. Go intimidate your friends!), and he uses a tune that later becomes the main theme of the finale of the Third Symphony, and consequently the subject of the Eroica Variations for piano solo. Nikolaus Harnoncourt is great with music of this sort, investing it with uncommon urgency and making it sound suitably grand.

Few musical partnerships have elicited such divergent critical opinions as Maurizio Pollini and Claudio Abbado in Brahms’s two piano concertos. Reviewing the First Concerto in April 1999, Richard Osborne found ‘a lack of quickness and intelligence in the inner-part playing’ while missing ‘any real sense of interaction between soloist and orchestra’. A year earlier Bryce Morrison, in his review of the Second Concerto, had found it ‘impossible to think of them apart, their unity [here] is so indissoluble’. BM also praised what he heard as ‘a granitic reading stripped of all surplus gesture, preening mannerism or overt display, intent only on the unveiling of a musical or moral truth’.

This is one of Handel's most inspired and invigorating works. Relatively short (50 minutes), it is an ode to music itself, with arias and choruses in praise of the attributes of various instruments, from the "trumpet's loud clangor" to the "soft complaining flute", of course featuring solos for those players. It also has one of Handel's most rousing final choruses, depicting the end of the world, when "music shall untune the sky".

The overwhelming success of the Prague performance of Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) in December 1786, led to the commissioning of a new opera. Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte turned to the Don Juan theme, making this promising material the basis for their new opera. In the spring of 1787 Mozart began to compose it in Vienna, and was able to complete it in Prague by the autumn of the same year. Don Giovanni received its first performance, under the composer’s personal direction, on 20 October 1787 at Prague’s Count Nostitz National Theatre. This production of Don Giovanni at the Zurich Opera House was staged by the highly creative team of conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, director Jürgen Flimm and set-designer Erich Wonder. Rodney Gilfry and Cecilia Bartoli lead a first-class group of singers.

Mozart's third and final opera with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, the hugely ambitious dramatic comedy Così fan Tutte (roughly translated as "They're All Like That"), is brought passionately to life in a first-class production conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and featuring one of the great starring roles for Cecilia Bartoli. Filmed live at the Zurich Opera House in February 2000 on a set that visualizes the subtitle "The School for Lovers," the plot revolves around two army officers arguing about the fidelity of their brides, then setting out to test their chastity.

Thanks to his omnivorous curiosity, conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt has revived an authentic masterpiece. Several opera composers–Lully, Handel, and Gluck–had already availed themselves of the amorous and stormy adventures of the knight Rinaldo and the enchantress Armida, drawn from Tasso's Jerusalem Liberated. Composed in 1784, Haydn's Armida was his the final opera he wrote for his patron Prince Esterházy, but it was also the composer's debut opera seria.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt presents his reading of “La Finta giardiniera”, a long-forgotten wonderfully tragicomic opera by the young Mozart. Almost a quarter of a century ago Harnoncourt presented his reading of the rediscovered work on CD, but in this version from the Zurich Opera, the great Mozart magician conducted a staged production for the first time, making the premiere an event in itself.

Though Harnoncourt may be a little over-cautious, what's lost in joie de vivre is gained in clarity and nuance. Similarly, the singers have plenty of space to enunciate and cherish every rolling phrase. Although Carlos Chausson makes an appealing everyman character as Figaro, he and everyone else must perform (sometimes literally) in Rodney Gilfry's domineering shadow. Gilfry's Alamaviva is a swaggering counterpart to his Don Giovanni, with the same almost overwhelming sexual presence and charisma; no wonder, then, that Eva Mei's Countess is so jealous, or that Isabel Rey's Susanna seems genuinely attracted despite her better judgment. The ensemble cast are uniformly delightful and, unusually, are all good actors: when the Count and Countess squabble, Gilfry and Mei really work themselves into a fine passion.

– Mark Walker

Schlank, beweglich, virtuos im Instrumentalen, überzeugend im Einsatz der historischen Praktiken und Klangwerkzeuge und mit großem Kunstverstand und Formgefühl Bachs Musik realisierend… Sie gehört für mich von den Aufnahmen des derzeitigen Angebots sogar in die erste Reihe.

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