Customer Reviews

Mozart - La finta giardiniera / Conwell · di Cesare · T. Moser · Sukis · Fassbaender · Ihloff · McDaniel · Orch Mozarteum Salzburg · L. Hager

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I bought the set to augment the version that came with the Mozart Complete Edition on Brilliant Classics. Though most of the opera offerings in that set I would label anywhere the good to magnificent, this was one of the weaker offerings. Everyone seemed to recommend this set. Mozart wrote this when he was 18 years old, and while the opera doesn't have the maturity of his later offerings (he hadn't really learned how to write a hit song yet), I find this more satisfying as a complete opera than anything he composed before Idomeneo. The lead performances by Ezio Di Cesare and Julia Conwell are are quite enchanting. You're not getting Terfel or Fleming here, but their performances are as good as anything you might hear on a Gardiner production of similar works. The three discs are accompanied by a 290 page booklet with essays, biographies of the performers and conductor, well written synopsis, and a full libretto in four languages, including Italian and English. This version is part of the Philips Complete Mozart Edition, and packaged accordingly. My only complaint with this purchase was the sound engineering. Even though it is an easy fix with a good ten band equalizer, the sound here was a little heavy on the middle bass frequencies, giving it a slightly muddy sound throughout. As with many Philips recordings, sometimes the performers seem a little too far away from the microphones. What's good about that is you pick up the acoustics of the place where the work was recorded. What is bad is everything sounds like you're sitting in and listening quite a few rows back from the stage in an empty auditorium. But for the price, you can pick this up used, probably an essential recording for Mozart opera fanatics.