Donald Satz wrote:

>I was rummaging through my older cds last night and came across a Mozart
>cd of symphonies (32, 35, 36) conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste leading the
>Scottish Chamber Orchestra on Virgin Classics....In the Mozart recording,
>Saraste is outstanding, and there are four features of the recording that
>lead me to this conclusion.
>
>First, Mozart's symphonies need to be performed with sufficient "weight".
>Without it, the music can sound merely pretty and even trivialized.  Those
>are common criticisms of Mozart's compositions, but Saraste gives the three
>symphonies full weight.

I like Don's description of this recording, which I'm not familiar with.
I would find it interesting to compare Saraste's versions with one of my
favorite conductors of Mozart symphonies, Peter Maag.  Any familiarity with
Maag that you can make a comparison, Don?

BTW, I consider the "Linz" symphony (#36) to be an underappreciated gem in
WAM's symphonic output, even though it's a later work.  There's the story
that he set it down on paper in something like four days, but one thing
that rarely gets mentioned is his use of brass and timpani in the slow
movement, something which was unheard of in those days.  The "Linz"
predates by several years Haydn's #88, which IIRC was the first time Haydn
used them in a slow symphonic movement.  Too bad the "Linz" was the only
time that Mozart seems to have used the device.

Bill H.