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WSJ: A.J. Goldman: 'Mozart 225: The New Complete Edition' Review: A Master in Full
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Frank Forman
Jan 22, 2017, 1:36:33 PM1/22/17
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I love the little fragments myself. So idiomatically Mozart and so
intriguing about what might have come later. A truly complete Beethoven
box would contain the jottings in his notebooks. I wonder how many hours
they would add up to.
A.J. Goldman: 'Mozart 225: The New Complete Edition' Review: A Master in
Full
http://www.wsj.com/articles/mozart-225-the-new-complete-edition-review-a-master-in-full-1481050479
On the anniversary of the composer's death, a massive collection spanning
240 hours, 4,000 tracks and 200 CDs offers all of Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart's known works
Dec. 6, 2016 1:54 p.m. ET
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died 225 years ago this week, leaving behind a
trove of musical masterworks miraculously vast given the composer's brief
35 years of life.
Like no one else before or since, Mozart was practically composing from
cradle to grave. Decca and Deutsche Grammophon's cinderblock-sized "Mozart
225: The New Complete Edition" seemingly contains every single note that
Mozart ever wrote, from the Andante in C, a 10-measure composition by the
5-year-old prodigy, dutifully transcribed by his father, to the unfinished
Requiem Mass. In fact, there are three different versions of the Requiem
in this circa 25-pound compendium. Universal Music is billing this as the
largest boxed set ever assembled, and it would take about 240 hours to
listen to the 4,000 tracks spread over 200 CDs. Mozart is quite possibly
the most recorded composer of all time, and "Mozart 225" gives his music
the five-star treatment with performances by most of the great classical
music artists of the past four decades, including many of today's
best-known (and best-selling) musicians, conductors and singers.
There is a fussily pedantic side to the project. It's one thing to include
newly discovered works, like "Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia," a brief
song that was a collaboration with Antonio Salieri (Mozart's nemesis in
the popular imagination, thanks to "Amadeus") and discovered late last
year in Prague. It's quite another to present every performable musical
idea that Mozart may have written down for the mere sake of doing do.
Admittedly, there is something admirable about such an obsessive approach.
But how many people will want to listen to six discs of Handel
arrangements, two discs of fragments and seven discs of works of doubtful
authenticity? It's difficult to imagine anyone who isn't a music historian
slogging through the "fragments" discs, where most of the tracks are under
one minute and the shortest is 15 seconds.
Still, even with a hefty retail price ($479.98), "Mozart 225: The New
Complete Edition" works out to a couple of bucks per disc. The mighty
assortment of recordings of the symphonies, concerti, chamber music operas
and sacred works justify the cost.
There are several ways to parse the "new" in the set's subtitle. Most
immediately, it distinguishes "Mozart 225" from Philips's previous
"Complete Mozart Edition," released in 1991 for the composer's
bicentennial. (Universal boasts that "Mozart 225" contains 70% different
recordings from that earlier set.) It also refers to the historically
informed performance practices that have, over the past decades, sought to
get closer to how Mozart's music might have sounded in his own day.
Twenty-five years ago, the Philips set contained only a single
period-instrument recording. The new set abounds with them, including
Arnold Г–stman's spirited chamber recording of "Le nozze di Figaro" and
fresh, robust performances by John Eliot Gardiner,Christopher
Hogwood,Trevor Pinnock,Frans BrГјggen and Marc Minkowski and their
respective ensembles. By contrast, a world-premiere recording played on
Mozart's very own violin, viola and 1782 fortepiano, and performed in
Mozart's house in Salzburg, is a particularly weird stunt, featuring harsh
strings and a clattering keyboard.
"Lavish" is the word that comes to mind when beholding "Mozart 225." This
is clearly an item designed to be the centerpiece of a coffee table, if
not a shrine. It comes with a certificate of authenticity, two richly
illustrated linen-bound books, and facsimiles of scores, letters and a
portrait that Deutsche Grammophon suggests you frame. Sadly, there's never
all that much information about a particular recording or artist (just a
work-by-work overview in one of the large books). To compensate for the
lack of individual booklets, there's a user-friendly libretto app that
makes it easy to find your place in a given vocal work. It would have been
nice to also have a digital pass for all the music or at least a dedicated
streaming platform.
Mozart's music is so rich and open to interpretation that it would be
absurd to claim that any one set, even one as carefully curated as this
one, could ever be considered authoritative. Still, "Mozart 225," which
has managed to sell nearly half of its limited run--6,250 copies, or 1.25
million discs--in its first five weeks on the market, comes closer than
anything we've ever heard before.
--Mr. Goldmann writes about European arts and culture.
intriguing about what might have come later. A truly complete Beethoven
box would contain the jottings in his notebooks. I wonder how many hours
they would add up to.
A.J. Goldman: 'Mozart 225: The New Complete Edition' Review: A Master in
Full
http://www.wsj.com/articles/mozart-225-the-new-complete-edition-review-a-master-in-full-1481050479
On the anniversary of the composer's death, a massive collection spanning
240 hours, 4,000 tracks and 200 CDs offers all of Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart's known works
Dec. 6, 2016 1:54 p.m. ET
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died 225 years ago this week, leaving behind a
trove of musical masterworks miraculously vast given the composer's brief
35 years of life.
Like no one else before or since, Mozart was practically composing from
cradle to grave. Decca and Deutsche Grammophon's cinderblock-sized "Mozart
225: The New Complete Edition" seemingly contains every single note that
Mozart ever wrote, from the Andante in C, a 10-measure composition by the
5-year-old prodigy, dutifully transcribed by his father, to the unfinished
Requiem Mass. In fact, there are three different versions of the Requiem
in this circa 25-pound compendium. Universal Music is billing this as the
largest boxed set ever assembled, and it would take about 240 hours to
listen to the 4,000 tracks spread over 200 CDs. Mozart is quite possibly
the most recorded composer of all time, and "Mozart 225" gives his music
the five-star treatment with performances by most of the great classical
music artists of the past four decades, including many of today's
best-known (and best-selling) musicians, conductors and singers.
There is a fussily pedantic side to the project. It's one thing to include
newly discovered works, like "Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia," a brief
song that was a collaboration with Antonio Salieri (Mozart's nemesis in
the popular imagination, thanks to "Amadeus") and discovered late last
year in Prague. It's quite another to present every performable musical
idea that Mozart may have written down for the mere sake of doing do.
Admittedly, there is something admirable about such an obsessive approach.
But how many people will want to listen to six discs of Handel
arrangements, two discs of fragments and seven discs of works of doubtful
authenticity? It's difficult to imagine anyone who isn't a music historian
slogging through the "fragments" discs, where most of the tracks are under
one minute and the shortest is 15 seconds.
Still, even with a hefty retail price ($479.98), "Mozart 225: The New
Complete Edition" works out to a couple of bucks per disc. The mighty
assortment of recordings of the symphonies, concerti, chamber music operas
and sacred works justify the cost.
There are several ways to parse the "new" in the set's subtitle. Most
immediately, it distinguishes "Mozart 225" from Philips's previous
"Complete Mozart Edition," released in 1991 for the composer's
bicentennial. (Universal boasts that "Mozart 225" contains 70% different
recordings from that earlier set.) It also refers to the historically
informed performance practices that have, over the past decades, sought to
get closer to how Mozart's music might have sounded in his own day.
Twenty-five years ago, the Philips set contained only a single
period-instrument recording. The new set abounds with them, including
Arnold Г–stman's spirited chamber recording of "Le nozze di Figaro" and
fresh, robust performances by John Eliot Gardiner,Christopher
Hogwood,Trevor Pinnock,Frans BrГјggen and Marc Minkowski and their
respective ensembles. By contrast, a world-premiere recording played on
Mozart's very own violin, viola and 1782 fortepiano, and performed in
Mozart's house in Salzburg, is a particularly weird stunt, featuring harsh
strings and a clattering keyboard.
"Lavish" is the word that comes to mind when beholding "Mozart 225." This
is clearly an item designed to be the centerpiece of a coffee table, if
not a shrine. It comes with a certificate of authenticity, two richly
illustrated linen-bound books, and facsimiles of scores, letters and a
portrait that Deutsche Grammophon suggests you frame. Sadly, there's never
all that much information about a particular recording or artist (just a
work-by-work overview in one of the large books). To compensate for the
lack of individual booklets, there's a user-friendly libretto app that
makes it easy to find your place in a given vocal work. It would have been
nice to also have a digital pass for all the music or at least a dedicated
streaming platform.
Mozart's music is so rich and open to interpretation that it would be
absurd to claim that any one set, even one as carefully curated as this
one, could ever be considered authoritative. Still, "Mozart 225," which
has managed to sell nearly half of its limited run--6,250 copies, or 1.25
million discs--in its first five weeks on the market, comes closer than
anything we've ever heard before.
--Mr. Goldmann writes about European arts and culture.
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