It was with the Sinfonia Varsovia that Menuhin made his excellent recordings of late Mozart symphonies for Virgin Classics. Here for the Classic fM label he follows those up with another highly recommendable Mozart issue, again offering fresh and alert performances vividly recorded. Not only that, the choice of overtures is markedly more generous than on any rival disc, including as it does the early pieces, Il re pastore, Bastien und Bastienne and Mitridate.
The Overture to Bastien und Bastienne may be little more than a flourish, lasting just over a minute and a half, but, as Marion Scott pointed out many years ago in her Master Musicians book on Beethoven, its opening strikingly anticipates the first theme of the Eroica. Like the Overture to Lucio Silla, the most inspired of Mozart’s teenage operas, the one for Mitridate is like a symphony in three movements, just as delightful only even more compact, lasting in all only five and a half minutes.
Sir Neville Marriner’s rival collection on EMI, dating from the earliest days of CD but still at full price (via SIS), has only nine overtures instead of Menuhin’s 13, and though the performances are similarly fresh and polished, Marriner’s very slow speeds and expressive style for introductions and middle movements come in marked contrast with Menuhin’s fresh, alert manner at relatively brisk speeds. And what above all makes Menuhin’s disc compelling is the overall sense of live communication, of players responding in fresh enjoyment.The excellent sound, recorded by Mike Hatch in a Warsaw Radio studio early this year, is full and clear with ample bloom, not least on the woodwind and the ripe-toned horns.'