‘Sturm und Drang’, Volume 3
£12.00
“The bomb-proof technical standard of the playing would surely have delighted Mozart. And winsome justice is done to the beautiful slow movements of Kozeluch’s and Haydn’s symphonies. But the stand-out feature here is the sensational contribution of American soprano Emily Pogorelc, who is rapidly becoming a star on the European operatic scene. Her singing here has superb technical sureness, state-of-the-art command of the music’s wild emotional switchbacks, and firework-display virtuosity to match.”
BBC Music Magazine
Read a selection of other reviews here
The Mozartists’ highly acclaimed ‘Sturm und Drang’ series of recordings continues with this thrillingly dramatic selection of works dating from between 1771 and 1788. The programme again culminates with one of Haydn’s great ‘Sturm und Drang’ symphonies – this time arguably the greatest of them all, the ‘Trauer’ – and, for the first time in the series, Mozart is also represented in the form of his extraordinarily visceral and darkly chromatic Adagio and Fugue in C minor. The other orchestral work is an outstanding G minor symphony by the Czech composer Leopold Kozeluch, whose quality, sweep and lyricism will surprise many listeners, and the two vocal works are genuine rarities. Schweitzer’s Alceste was one of the earliest attempts to create German tragic opera in the vernacular and it launches with an aria of searing intensity. The scene from Paisiello’s Annibale in Torino – the twenty-third of his eighty-seven operas – features an exquisite but brief arioso before leading into a stormy G minor aria. The soloist is the American soprano Emily Pogorelc, an Associate Artist of The Mozartists, with Ian Page once again conducting his award-winning period-instrument ensemble. The first two volumes of this series were both selected as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone.
2-3. SCHWEITZER: “Er ist gekommen… Zwischen Angst und zwischen Hoffen” from Alceste
Emily Pogorelc (soprano)
KOZELUCH: Symphony in G minor
4. 1. Allegro
5. 2. Adagio
6. 3. Presto
7-8. PAISIELLO: “Empî, fermate, olà… Smarrita, tremante” from Annibale in Torino
HAYDN: Symphony No. 44 in E minor, ‘Trauer’
9. 1. Allegro con brio
10. 2. Menuetto e Trio: Allegretto
11. 3. Adagio
12. 4. Finale: Presto
