Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos. 3-5

by Gottfried von der Goltz, Freiburger Barockorchester, Kristian Bezuidenhout

Overview

Whether it is a modern ensemble or a historical instrument group playing, Mozart's violin concertos tend to be given a sweet, rather sentimental sound in line with the music he wrote for Paris in the late 1770s, even though he composed these works several years before he went to Paris. (This may be because Mozart erased the earlier dates on the manuscripts so as to get more mileage out of them.) It is not easy with such popular works to devise an original interpretation, but violinist Gottfried von der Goltz and the Freiburger Barockorchester manage to do so. They draw not on the French style but, as annotator Henning Bey outlines, on opera, with which Mozart had just experienced his first great successes in Italy. That idea completely reorients the performances. Sample the violin entrances, where von der Goltz takes his time as if he were a singer coming on stage. The Turkish elements in the finale of the Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219, have the flavor of an operatic scene. Another theatrical element comes from conductor Kristian Bezuidenhout, who leads the orchestra from the keyboard and, from time to time, inserts some fortepiano remarks (a procedure for which there was some contemporary evidence). At the very least, these readings provide a whole new way of hearing the Mozart violin concertos, and listeners are likely to find them extremely refreshing; enough have done so that the album landed on classical best-seller charts in early 2023. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	02/17/2023
Label:	Aparte
UPC:	5051083181327
Rank:	191152

Tracks

1. Violin Concerto no. 3 in G major K.216~I. Allegro
2. Violin Concerto no. 3 in G major K.216~II. Adagio
3. Violin Concerto no. 3 in G major K.216~III. Rondeau. Allegro
4. Violin Concerto no. 4 in D major K.218~I. Allegro
5. Violin Concerto no. 4 in D major K.218~II. Andante cantabile
6. Violin Concerto no. 4 in D major K.218~III. Rondeau. Andante grazioso
7. Violin Concerto no. 5 in A major K.219~I. Allegro aperto
8. Violin Concerto no. 5 in A major K.219~II. Adagio
9. Violin Concerto no. 5 in A major K.219~III. Rondeau. Tempo di Menuetto

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Gottfried von der Goltz   Primary Artist,Violin
Freiburger Barockorchester   Primary Artist,Orchestra
Kristian Bezuidenhout   Primary Artist,Conductor,Piano

Technical Credits

Ambroise Helmlinger   Mastering,Engineer,Editing,Mixing
Little Tribeca   Engineer
Emmanuelle Ayrton   Liner Note Translation
Valentin Behringer   Photography
Christoph Kern   Instrument Design
Henning Bey   Liner Notes
Paolo Antonio Testore   Instrument Design
Nicolas Bartholomee   Artistic Director,Engineer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart   Composer