Dead before his 36th birthday, Mozart left a staggering body of work and from that output an amazing number of masterpieces. Here are ten essential works that gave an idea of breadth, and more important, depth of this musical genius. Whether writing for a solo piano, in the A major Piano Sonata with its famous Rondo alla turca finale, or a grand canvas, as in the opera Don Giovanni, Mozart’s music has humanity, beauty, delicacy and an unmistakable reaching towards the sublime.

1. Eine kleine Nachtmusik

Academy of St Martin in the Fields / Sir Neville Marriner

(Philips)

Eine kleine Nachtmusik brings a performance plainly designed to caress the ear of traditional listeners wearied with period performance. The second movement Romanze is even more honeyed than usual on muted strings.

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2. Piano Concerto in C, K467

'Mozart Momentum - 1785'

Mahler Chamber Orchestra / Leif Ove Andsnes

(Sony Classical)

Their way with the C major Concerto, K467, which was composed a month after the D minor, is particularly effective, the outer movements no longer overshadowed by the fame of the Andante, with the orchestra bringing to the opening of the Allegro maestoso the sense of an overture to an opera buffa, trumpets, horns and timpani emphasising its bonhomie. The moment before the piano’s first entry (2'15") is just one example of the calibre of the music-making, in which oboe, then bassoon followed by flute add just the right degree of rubato, the piano then picking up the sense of delight. The instances of chamber-musical finesse are everywhere, Leif Ove Andsnes always sounding like one of the gang. His choice of Géza Anda’s cadenza is fitting, its cheeky little harmonic excursions playful but always apt.

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3. Symphony No 40

SCO / Sir Charles Mackerras

(Linn) 

4. Requiem

Dunedin Consort / John Butt

(Linn Records)

Purely on grounds of performance alone, this is one of the finest Mozart Requiems of recent years. John Butt brings to Mozart the microscopic care and musicological acumen that have made his Bach and Handel recordings so thought-provoking and satisfying.

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5. Don Giovanni

Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Luca Pisaroni, Diana Damrau; Mahler Chamber Orchestra / Yannick Nézet-Séguin

(DG)

Yannick Nézet-Séguin proves himself to be a superb Mozartian. From the fierce opening chords of the Overture to the moralising final ensemble his pacing can’t be faulted. The Statue music, whether in the Overture or in the Act 2 Finale, flows without being rushed. And there are so many details that compel admiration: the diminuendo on the chord when the Commendatore is fatally wounded, the attention to the syncopations in the duet for Donna Anna and Don Ottavio, a little crescendo in the orchestra between Don Giovanni’s twofold ‘Elvira, idolo mio’ in the Act 2 Trio. 

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6. Horn Concerto No 4

Dennis Brain, Philharmonia Orchestra / Herbert von Karajan

(Warner Classics)

Boyd Neel's oft-quoted comment that Dennis Brain was the finest Mozartian soloist of his generation comes readily to mind as one listens again to his 1954 recording of the four horn concertos. Of course Walter Legge, who admired his playing enormously, gave him an estimable advantage in securing Karajan to conduct the Philharmonia in the accompaniments. So many concerto records are spoiled by ineffective partnerships, but not this one.

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7. Serenade for 13 winds (Gran Partita)

Mark Simpson, Fraser Langton, Nicholas Daniel, Emma Fielding, Amy Harman, Dom Tyler, Oliver Pashley, Ausias Garrigos Morant, Ben Goldscheider, Angela Barnes, James Pillai, Fabian van de Geest, David Stark

(Orchid Classics) 

In their superb recent recording, the wind soloists of the Concertgebouw (BIS, 1/21) bring a more operatic expressiveness, and an undercurrent of disturbance, to the famous Adagio. But in their slightly cooler way Daniel, Simpson and basset-hornist Oliver Pashley are hardly less persuasive, dovetailing seamlessly and floating Mozart’s long melodic spans across the bar lines. In a teeming catalogue, this new Gran Partita more than holds its own.

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8. Clarinet Concerto

Sabine Meyer; Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Claudio Abbado

(Warner Classics)

Sabine Meyer here returns as soloist to play with the orchestra which refused to accept her as Karajan's nominee for the post of first clarinet. She is, of course, a natural soloist rather than an orchestral player, and even since she last recorded Mozart's concerto with the Staatskapelle her individual artistry has intensified. The differences interpretatively between her two recordings are relatively small. She still opts for speeds faster than usual - markedly faster than those in the recordings listed above by Karl Leister and Thea King - but she now finds time to point phrasing and shade dynamics in more detail and with sharper contrasts, always with keen imagination and a feeling of spontaneity.

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9. The Marriage of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro)

Soloists; Concerto Köln / René Jacobs

(Harmonia Mundi)

The cast is excellent. Véronique Gens offers a beautifully natural, shapely ‘Porgi amor’ and a passionate and spirited ‘Dove sono’ (with the piano rampant near the end). The laughter in Patrizia Ciofi’s voice is delightful when she is dressing up Cherubino, and she has space in ‘Deh vieni’ for a touchingly expressive performance. Then there is Angelika Kirschlager’s Cherubino, alive and urgent in ‘Non so più’, every little phrase neatly moulded.

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10. Piano Sonata in A, K331 (Rondo alla turca)

Christian Blackshaw

(Wigmore Hall Live)

As Blackshaw himself notes, ‘the sonatas resemble mini-operas’. But how to apply that insight with discretion and variety, with humanity but without histrionics, is a rare gift. Blackshaw is one of the few who know how to make the music sing and dance without making a song and dance of it. And alongside operatic eloquence, his treatment of the surrounding texture suggests the civilised conversation and wit of Mozart’s wind serenades.

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