The Last Symphonies 39, 40, 41 / Bassoon Concerto in B flat K191

"These performances of Mozart's last 3 symphonies represnt just about the best we can expect from the school of "historically informed performance", which is to say that they are extremely fine indeed" David Hurwitz Classics Today USA November 2004

With the last symphonies, Anima Eterna comes back to Mozart whose Piano Concertos's integral enhanced the orchestra in 1991. When Mozart wrote these 3 last symphonies in 1788, vienneese audience - more conservative than ever - did not follow any more the « avant-garde » master. In this « trilogy », all aspects of human expression are investigated.

Whereas the development of the basoon after mid 1800's has been a striving to eliminate these differences and give a homogeneity of sound over the range, in Mozart's time this variety was valued and even exploited. Thus certain chromatic passages in the concerto are given added expressive effect by the very colour of the notes employed, and the wide leaps sound weighty and dramatic due to the very clear change in register. The virtuosic or climatic passages that may be tossed off which relative ease by the modern bassonist must be fought for on the classical bassoon, and this only serves to illuminate the inner dramatic structure of the piece. Jane Gower.