The 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth followed too
hard on the heels of the bicentenary of his death to be as fully
celebrated as that earlier occasion. It brought us much less of
a recording legacy, too, though what we have is not without its
value – the present Gala recording being a case in point. As the
notes in the booklet remind us, such events can often be tawdry
affairs; such is emphatically not the case here. Had I been there
on the night, I’m sure I’d have enjoyed it hugely and would have
waited eagerly for this DVD to appear as a memento of the occasion,
just as I’m sure that I’d have snapped up the DVD of the New Year’s
Day Concert had I ever been fortunate enough to attend. The appeal
of the DVD for the general music-lover is bound to be of a lower
order.
I’m not sure that video adds a great deal to our
enjoyment, except, of course, in managing to contain on one
disc what would inevitably have overflowed on CD or SACD. I
note that a debate in The Times has opened up the issue
of the extent to which the presence of cameras at several of
the 2008 Proms and at the opening night of the Royal Opera House
season interfered with the enjoyment of those in the audience.
At the same time, a parallel debate continues about
the extent to which video can distort an opera by panning from
one angle to another and showing detailed expressions which
would be invisible in the hall. The Farao DVDs of Handel’s Rodelinda
were spoiled for me by close-ups of sneering faces. (D108060
– see review.)
There are some music DVDs which I can’t bear to watch – I have
a DVD player wired into my audio system to hear them without
the pictures.
All of which is a lengthy prelude to my saying
that, although there were details on this recording that became
irksome with repetition – the walking-on of each soloist through
an artificial shrubbery, for example, complete with visible
terracotta pots – I didn’t on this occasion find the visual
presentation too off-putting. I wasn’t too enamoured, however,
of the floodlit monumental archway behind the orchestra, all
too redolent of the Pearl & Dean commercials which used
to grace the adverts in British cinemas, or the blue-sky background
with distant trees.
Too ‘busy’ a backdrop distracts from the listener’s
attention, as is also the case with DVDs of the Viennese New
Year’s concerts. It’s one thing to be in the Goldener Saal or
the Felsenreitschule, quite another for them to be the backdrop
to a broadcast or DVD. The actual picture quality is good –
who needs blu-ray with DVD as good as this with hdmi up-scaling
on HD television?
The performer credits are almost self-recommending,
with a starry line-up of singers – for once, the blurb on the
front about ‘seven outstanding Mozart singers’ gets it right
– and an orchestra who could probably play Mozart in their sleep,
all under the control of the up-and-coming British conductor
Daniel Harding, who gets the entertainment off to a flying start
with a performance of the Don Giovanni overture.
The performance of the overture contains just the
right mix of menace and lightness, though I found the close-up
shots as disconcerting as I usually do. Do we really need to
see, say, the timpani being whacked to know who is playing?
Close-ups of individual performers are psychologically disconcerting
because they are at odds with the static stereo or surround-sound
stage.
René Pape’s catalogue aria gets the vocal items
off to a good start, too. It would surely be a show-stopper
in a performance of the opera and fully deserves the encomium
from Die Presse quoted on the DVD cover. He slightly
misses the knowing little pause before Ma in Espagna
... which some singers employ effectively, but he is otherwise
well into his role, albeit that most of the audience probably
couldn’t see the lifted eyebrows and other facial expressions.
The enthusiasm which he puts into his voice as he describes
the various types of delectable femininity would certainly have
been conveyed to the audience.
The English translation of this and the other vocal
items is idiomatic but I’m going to air my usual complaint that
it isn’t possible to have the original Italian and the translation
on-screen simultaneously. It should be possible.
Michael Schade’s Dalla sua pace inevitably
makes less impact, especially as he includes the prefatory recitative
– accompanied on a large-scale harpsichord – but he sings with
real feeling, again fully into his role, with a blend of delicacy
and power. I wonder how well the audience heard the quieter
sections, though they come over well on the recording. I just
wondered why we needed to see him so close up that we could
examine his lapel badges; at times his head more than fills
the whole screen. He returns later for Se all’imperio
from la Clemenza, a very different piece which he sings
equally well.
Patricia Petibon sings Nel grave tormento
sweetly but with plenty of power where it’s needed. Perhaps
this early Mozart doesn’t give her the same chance to shine
as the other soloists, but she certainly doesn’t let the side
down. Nor does Magdalena Kožená in Parto,
ma tu ben mio.
Thomas Hampson offers a fine account of Rivolgete,
an aria which Mozart omitted from the final version of Cosě.
He’s just a little heavy for the part – his voice is more suited
to Mahler’s Lied von der Erde, where he makes a valuable
contribution to the Tilson Thomas-San Francisco recording which
I recently reviewed – and Mozart was probably right to delete
this aria, but I have no major complaints about this item, either.
Tracks 9-12 offer a mini-programme of excerpts
from Idomeneo, commencing with an effective account of
the overture.
Ekaterina Siurina sings Se il padre perdei
very affectively but the joint first prize must go to her idyllic
duet with Magdalena Kožená and to the fire and drama of Anna
Netrebko in Elettra’s aria. For once seeing the singer’s movements
and expressions added considerably to the sum of things – it
was a real surprise when Netrebko smiled again at the end. That
these accolades should be awarded to music from an opera which
is not usually reckoned to be one of Mozart’s greatest – I can’t
remember when I last dug out my Harnoncourt recording of this
drama per musica – means that all the more credit must
go to these performers.
You probably wouldn’t buy the DVD for the orchestral
music which frames the concert, with the Don Giovanni
overture at the beginning and the Prague Symphony as finale,
but the symphony receives a good, fairly ‘traditional’, performance
with tempi only a little faster than, say, those of Bruno Walter,
whose stereo recordings of the last 6 Mozart symphonies I still
treasure alongside more recent versions. (CBS M2YK45676, unfortunately
not currently available.) Tony Duggan’s words
about a different (live) Walter version of Mozart’s Symphony
No.40 express my feelings exactly: “Mozart from another world
as valid and important as any you will hear.” Harding’s Prague
Symphony isn’t that special, but it certainly makes a fine conclusion
to the concert and the DVD and it’s rather more of today’s world,
more cognisant of period practice. Here, as throughout the programme,
Harding and the VPO avoid any sense of heaviness, with some
especially delicate violin playing in the symphony.
It seems invidious to choose among Mozart’s final
symphonies but I have seen a very strong case made for regarding
the Prague as the greatest of them: it certainly manages to
pack a great deal of wonderful music into its small three-movement
space. The arrangement is neat in that Giovanni, which
opened the concert, was premiered in Prague. Also, of course,
the symphony was written in honour of the city which valued
Mozart most highly, and which inspired that wonderful little
novelle about Mozart’s visit to that city for the Giovanni
premiere, Eduard Mörike’s Mozart auf der Reise nach Prag.
The Felsenreitschule is clearly a large (1400+
seats), partly outdoor, venue but the engineers cope very well.
Even as ordinary television sound, the recording is more than
adequate. Heard via an AV receiver the soundstage is very convincing,
without the extreme separation which sometimes afflicts DVD
sound.
Neil Kimberley’s brief notes are valuable.
This may not be the most essential Mozart DVD on
the market – I’d go first for DVDs of one or more of the less
quirky opera productions first, such as Riccardo Muti’s 1999
Don Giovanni on TDK2055451 or DVW-OPDG – but I can’t
imagine anyone regretting the outlay.
Brian
Wilson
*Anna Netrebko (soprano); **Magdalena Kožená (soprano); ^Patricia
Petibon (soprano); ^^Ekaterina Siurina (soprano); +Thomas
Hampson (baritone); ++Michael Schade (tenor), ○René
Pape (bass); Anton Holzapfel (harpsichord); 
[93:00] 
