Description
SKU/Barcode: 747313104277
Here's a recording of Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525, that has bounced around the budget bins several times since its release in 1987 (the accompanying Divertimento in B flat major, K. 287 -- not B major, as is erroneously given on the back cover -- comes from the early '90s). Now, in this incarnation in Naxos' Selection series, it is completely stripped down: the back cover promises 'further details inside,' but all you find when you open the case is a track list and another instance of the same pair of swans you see on the cover. But the basic product, despite the rampant budget-cutting, remains sound. The venerable Capella Istropolitana under conductors Harald Nerat (K. 287) and Wolfgang Sobotka (K. 525 and K. 239), from the Slovak capital of Bratislava, is not a state-of-the-art Mozart ensemble, but is certainly a well-schooled group of musicians capable of carrying off a rhythmically graceful, somewhat precious Mozart performance with sweet string tone. In Eine kleine Nachtmusik itself the group offers an airy reading with brisk tempos. It is at its best in the Serenata Notturna, K. 239, which often has a lumbering effect with its brasses and timpani, but here has the appropriate festive atmosphere. Sound is markedly better in the final divertimento than in the 1987 recordings, but is nowhere really pleasant. Still, for the environments for which this release is intended -- the car, the deck, the kitchen -- it does fine, and the whole production is worth the few bucks it will cost you.
1. Allegro
2. Romance
3. Menuetto Allegro
4. Rondo Allegro
5. Maestoso
6. Menuetto
7. Rondo: Allegro Adagio Allegro
8. Allegro
9. Andante Grazioso Con Variazioni
10. Menuetto
11. Adagio
12. Menuetto
13. Andante Allegro Molto