The Mozartists
and their director,
Ian Page
, have made a career of exploring the music of
Mozart
in the context of his musical surroundings, and their recordings have been of uniformly high quality. Now, they have turned to the Sturm und Drang ("Storm and Stress") movement of the late 18th century, which featured minor keys, highly dramatic contrasts, and, in general, a subjective intensity that reacted against the balance characteristic of Classical-era music. This movement was more associated with instrumental music than with opera, and it might be asked whether the minor-key operatic arias like those here from
Anton Schweitzer
and
Giovanni Paisiello
really qualify as Sturm und Drang; these had different sources from the literary ones, the early writings of
Goethe
among them, that inspired Sturm und Drang composers of instrumental music. This said, this album has a lot of music that even serious Classicism buffs may not have heard, beautifully performed. In the operatic excerpts (
Schweitzer
is all but unknown, but these pieces from his opera
Alceste
will make one wonder why), rising soprano
Emily Pogorelc
has a fine sense of dramatic involvement with the text. The
Symphony in G minor
of
Leopold Kozeluch
is another standout, in the same ballpark as, if not
's
Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
, at least the so-called
"Little" Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183
.
himself is present only in the
Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K. 546
, usually played by a string quartet, but taking on an exceptionally dark, agitated quality here with a full string group. The program ends with
Haydn
Symphony No. 44 in E minor, Hob. 1/44
, which offers a good example of the general style.
' series is projected to reach seven volumes, and one is excited to think about what new finds may emerge in the later ones. ~ James Manheim