Customer Reviews

Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos. 1, 3, 4

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Viktoria Mullova has kind of faded lately from the mainstream classical vocabulary, if you will, but not from the minds and hearts of her fans. This album is wonderful. Mozart here is beautifully balanced; Viktoria and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment never sound Romantic or Baroque; these are Classical concertos in a performance that both reminds you and makes you forget when it was written; I just enjoyed the music. So will you. There is a grace and lyric dignity to this CD that is hard to quantify, but is impossible to miss.

Oh by the way, the playing is flawless. Especially Mullova on that gut-strung Stradivarius! Wow!

Plenty of panache, sweetness and lyricism from Mullova here. Tempi seem just right and she makes light of even the most difficult passages. These performances really lift one's spirit as music should do. Sound quality is superb too, warm and detailed.

Better quality and more exciting than Monica Huggett's recordings (with same orchestra). Haven't heard Simon Standage's set so can't compare there.

Can't wait for Concertos 2 & 5!

Viktoria Mullova is supremely talented and I have yet to experience a performance from her that is not wonderful and enjoyable.

On this disc she is both the soloist and the conductor of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, performing on a gut-stringed 1723 Stradivari, and it is her first recording with a "Period" instrument group.

This recording put her on the cover of Gramophone Magazine in November, 2002, and was one of the "Editor's Choice" discs for that month. They remarked that she brought "a modern player's technique and background to the interpretation of Mozart" with "a lightness of bow and crispness of articulation that is scarcely available to" the modern performer.

To my ears, this performance is about as perfect as it gets, and I don't know what else to say beyond that.

Gramophone compares this recording to Monica Huggett (with the same Orchestra as this Mullova recording - see Mozart: Violin Concertos), and to Simon Standage (with the Academy of Ancient Music, conducted by Christopher Hogwood - see Mozart: Violin Concertos), and feels that both have some advantages. Huggett and Standage are also both performers who are well established in the period performance field. I happen to also have the Standage/Hogwood/AAM disc, and it is equally as enjoyable as this with Mullova, but I would have a hard time selecting one over the other.

Since this recording, she has recorded several other violin concertos - Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Vivaldi - with other period instrument orchestras. Unfortunately I do not believe she has recorded the remaining Mozart Violin Concerto's (No's 2 & 5), so if you want the full set then you might want to go with Standage/Hogwood/AAM.

You will not be disappointed in this excellent performance of these three Violin Concerto's by Mozart.

I saw this woman perform in Mpls MN a few years ago. I had never seen nor have ever seen since such a powerful performer. Every time I listen to this I am brought back to that night. She is the greatest.