Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Symphony No. 39 in E flat major K543
Symphony No. 40 in G minor K550
Symphony No. 41 in C major K551 ‘Jupiter’
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Herbert Blomstedt
rec. live, 17-21 December 2019, Philharmonie im Gasteig (39); 31 January – 1 February 2013, (40); 18-22 December 2017, Herkulessaal der Residenz (41), Munich
Reviewed as a digital download from a press preview
BR Klassik 900196 [2 CDs: 102]
The bulk of the recordings which have documented the remarkable Indian summer of Herbert Blomstedt’s career have featured the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra but this splendid live set of Mozart’s late symphonies demonstrates that the magic works equally powerfully with other bands – in this case the Bavarian Radio Symphony in Munich.
Blomstedt, as evidenced by a recent triumphant Brahms cycle and some remarkable Schubert, has reached a level of maturity in his conducting where issues of individual interpretation seem almost irrelevant. Everything is done with such a sense of quiet but firm conviction that criticism would feel almost like trivial nitpicking.
Just about the only drawback to the entire enterprise is that it is saddled with uniquely awful booklet notes translated from Jörg Handstein’s original German. Amongst many nonsensical assertions we read that the slow movement of the G minor symphony is “idyllic, light and airy”. He might have done well to have listened to the performance that his notes accompany. Even at Blomstedt’s brisk but pleasing tempo, the darkness of this movement is readily apparent. At this speed the recurrent fidgeting figure even more vividly evokes a lack of repose than usual. It is true that Bruno Walter for one digs deeper into Mozart’s pungent chromaticism in the second half but Blomstedt is more agile and more dramatic, the darkening shadows that fall over the scene as the music progresses are positively operatic in character. As the cliché goes, no matter what he was writing, Mozart was always composing operas.
This slow movement of the G minor is a good example of Blomstedt’s artful, even sly way of navigating a middle way between old fashioned and new fangled. There is nothing to horrify the purist – unless extremely narrow and dogmatic in outlook – but equally such beautiful playing ought to appeal to those whose idea of Mozart is Karl Böhm. Strings are light with a touch of bite rather than astringent, woodwinds characterful not queasy. It definitely isn’t historically informed but rather an intelligent musician’s thoughtful response to new ideas.
There will be those who will want a performance that digs deeper into the Minuet of this symphony than Blomstedt’s suave approach but it is all apiece with his overall Olympian conception of these masterpieces. The result is that you won’t get in the finale of K550 the sound of hell hounds on Mozart’s trail. Despite Handstein’s best efforts in his booklet notes to make these symphonies autobiographical, Blomstedt resists this concept. Instead, he gives us marvellously placed woodwind chords in this finale’s development section that draw the ear to Mozart’s harmonic audacity in this passage – the greatness of the classical tradition at its most majestic. I would be tempted to call it Klemperer like if the temperaments of the two conductors weren’t so different. Like Klemperer’s, though, these are performances built to last, impervious to the vagaries of fashion. It is but one small example of a musical wisdom that can’t be taught.
Blomstedt is certainly in no hurry in the opening movement of the Jupiter and he creates a most attractive sense of space around the notes which the Bavarian orchestra fill with all manner of carefully honed detail. Blomstedt’s broad vision of the music’s structure means that this never descends into detail for detail’s sake as in Simon Rattle’s 2017 version of the same coupling with a strangely malnourished sounding Berlin Philharmonic. Blomstedt has a firm grasp, too, of the essential and different characters of all three works: No.39 ripe, No.40 tragic and grand and No.41 majestic and festive.
In the minor key episode of No.39’s slow movement I greatly appreciated the way in which Blomstedt lets the accompanying instruments provide the loudness rather than shrieking first violins as is all too common. That passage is another example of his sensitivity to Mozart’s carefully conceived harmonic plan for the whole work by allowing us to hear the harmony not just as something in the background. If I miss a little of the Sarastro like mysticism in this sublime movement then is typical of Blomstedt’s agnostic/humanist take on these scores.
There isn’t a huge amount of Mozart in Blomstedt’s extensive back catalogue though he has recorded these symphonies once before in Dresden. As with other recent remakes, the differences aren’t massive but represent a mellow deepening of already well aged interpretations. I have often bemoaned on this website an unconsidered one size fits all pseudo historically informed approach to the great Viennese classics – short breathed lunging phrasing, every accent treated as a minor explosion and so on – Blomstedt’s “middle way” is the opposite of this and this recording shows it at its finest – every note carefully weighed and considered to get at the extraordinary riches of Mozart’s compositions.
David McDade
Previous review: Ralph Moore (May 2023)
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