Mozart: Grabmusik / Bastien und Bastienne (original version)
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W. A. MOZART
Mozart: Grabmusik / Bastien und Bastienne (original version)
Anna Lucia Richter (soprano) Jacques Imbrailo (baritone) Alessandro Fisher (tenor) / The Mozartists, Ian Page
[ Signum / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 14 September 2018
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Continuing their complete Mozart opera recording cycle, The Mozartists' latest release shines a light on two early opera works by Mozart.
Grabmusik was reported to be the product of a test set by the prince of Salzburg, who: "… not crediting that such masterly compositions were really those of a child, shut him up for a week, during which he was not permitted to see any one, and was left only with music paper, and the words of an oratorio … During this short time he composed a very capital oratorio, which was most highly approved of upon being performed." Performed for Holy Week the title can be translated as 'Cantata on Christ's Grave' (literally 'Grave Music'), and the anonymous text takes the form of a dialogue between a tormented soul, who is desperately lamenting the tragedy of Christ's death, and an angel.
Bastien und Bastienne is the only one of Mozart's operas to have been written for performance in a private house rather than a theatre. Commissioned at some point in mid-1768 by the renowned and controversial German physician Franz Anton Mesmer, it tells the tale of two young shepherds, Bastien and Bastienne, being reconciled in love by the fortune teller and magician Colas after Bastien has briefly been lured away by the attractions of a noble lady from the city. This new recording uses Mozart's original 1768 setting of the libretto by F. W. Weiskern & J. H. F. Müller, the provenance of which was only established in the 1980s.
"Ian Page and his crack team - singers and players - are clearly having a lot of fun, which comes across in this excellent recording. It's a treat to experience these faint anticipations of greatness in such winning performances." Gramophone
"The playing in this early Singspiel fizzes with life, the singing is splendid and the work, childlike yet expert, charms. But what makes the disc exceptional is the rarely heard Grabmusik...admirably sung by Anna Lucia Richter and Jacques Imbrailo." Sunday Times
"[Bastien and Bastienne] is a bucolic tale with bucolic music to match, but much of it charming and bearing the promise of the glories to come, particularly in the duet writing." The Observer
"If you are collecting this Signum edition then acquiring this recording is a must, and if you are looking for a superb performance of one of Mozart's young productions then this is very much the best place to invest." MusicWeb Oct 2018
"Mozart as the child prodigy is apparent in these two wonderful early works - a cantata and opera composed amazingly at just 11 and 12 years old. It is enticing music, much more sophisticated than his instrumental works of this period. All four soloists along with The Mozartists bring it all alive with a fine sparkling performance. Highly recommended." Nicholas/Marbecks
