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The magic of Mozart
Not sure how to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the famed composer's birth? Here are some ideas.
Associated Press
Published January 28, 2006
It's a birthday bash being heard around the world.
Saltzburg, Austria, the city of Mozart's birth, was the focal point for Friday's 250th anniversary celebrations - but the sound of the master's music was being heard everywhere.
Orchestras halls and opera houses worldwide planned performances of his works. Piano students scheduled Mozart marathons and puppeteers were planning jubilee performances as cities across five continents toasted the musical genius.
Vienna, which claims Mozart in his later years, was staging a new production of his Idomeneo in one of the city's three opera houses and reviving The Magic Flute in another.
Performances of his works were planned by orchestras or opera houses in New York, Moscow, Washington, Prague, London, Paris, Tokyo, Caracas, Venezuela, Quito, Ecuador, Havana, Mexico City, Taipei, Budapest and other cities worldwide.
Mozart wrote his first symphonies before turning 10 and his first significant opera at 12. He was instrumental in changing opera into the form we enjoy today.
He was prolific like few others, creating at least 626 musical works despite living to only 35. Other greats like Beethoven and Wagner publicly recognized their debt to him.
Don't know anything about Mozart? A guide for where to start:
FOR WAKEUP TIME:
A wonderful sound to have on your CD-alarm clock is the G-minor symphony, No. 40. There are many good choices, from conductor Bruno Walter's versions with the New York Philharmonic and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra to a well-regarded recording by Leonard Bernstein with the Vienna Philharmonic on DG.
FOR ROMANCE:
Don Giovanni was the greatest romancer of them all. There is his mandolin aria Deh, vieni alla finestra (Please, come to the window, oh my treasure) or the catalog aria on the Don's conquests by Leporello, Madamina, il catalogo e questo (My dear lady, this is a list). Bryn Terfel gives spirited renditions on DG's Bryn Terfel: Opera Arias with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and James Levine.
FOR INCREASING A CHILD'S IQ:
Guaranteed to put a smile on a child's face is Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music). The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, known for its light, crisp versions, released a 1985 recording on DG that is full of sunshine.
FOR PRAYER:
A DVD of the Requiem, his final composition, and the Mass in C minor has just been released by Philips. The 1991 performance at the beautiful Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona, Spain, features conductor John Eliot Gardiner leading Barbara Bonney, Anne Sofie von Otter, Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Alastair Miles, with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists.
FOR A LONG DRIVE:
Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), has many of Mozart's most brilliant tunes. There's no shortage of top contenders, including the 1955 Decca with Erich Kleiber conducting Cesare Sieppi, Hilda Gueden, Alfred Poell, Lisa della Casa and Suzanne Danco; and the 2003 Harmonia Mundi, with Rene Jacobs conducting Lorenzo Regazzo, Patrizia Ciofi, Simon Keenlyside, Veronique Gens and Angelika Kirchschlager. A quirky modernized version set in Trump Tower was staged by Peter Sellars and was released on a Decca DVD last year. For those desiring a couple of excerpts, try Renee Fleming's Signatures on Decca, which features her flowing versions of Porgi, armor and Dove sono with Sir Georg Solti conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.
FOR CALMING DOWN:
Carlos Kleiber, the famed conductor who died in 2004, led orchestras in just two Mozart works during the latter half of his life, No. 33 in B-flat major and No. 36 in E-minor (Linz). His rendition of the 33rd with the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra at Munich's Herkulessaal on Oct. 21, 1996, was recorded by television cameras and was released on a DVD last year by DG. The music has a silken sheen, and his conducting has the grace of ballet.
FOR REVVING UP:
Natalie Dessay, the noted coloratura soprano, set off fireworks as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberfloete (The Magic Flute). Versions appear on a Virgin Classics solo recording with Louis Langree leading the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and an Erato complete recording of the opera with William Christie conducting Les Arts Florissants. Diana Damrau is fierce in a BBC/Opus Arte DVD of a 2003 performance conducted by Colin Davis at the Royal Opera House in London.
[Last modified January 28, 2006, 01:37:10]
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