Like the three discs of Mozart that Abbado has recorded previously for Sony with the Berlin Philharmonic (3/92, 3/94 and 5/95), this offers an attractive mixture rather than a predictable coupling. This time the programme is rather weightier, and maybe for that reason studio recording in the Philharmonie has been preferred to live recording in the same venue, as favoured on the earlier discs. I am sad about that, for though these are stylish and elegant performances, beautifully played, they lack something of the verve which made the earlier performances so magnetic, regularly taking you by surprise.
In a way the most surprising performance here is that of the early symphony, No. 23, written for Salzburg as one of a set of six when Mozart was 18, and well under ten minutes long. Here it is unashamedly presented on the same scale as the two big masterpieces which follow, and the result is very winning. With plenty of light and shade, Abbado brings out the fun of the first movement, while the central Andantino is elegant at a relaxed speed, leading to a Presto finale in which Abbado brings out the swaggering military flavour of the main theme.
My comparison was with Levine (on an 11-disc DG set), whose reading is straighter-faced, but when it comes to the other, far greater symphony, the Linz, it is Levine who presents Mozart with more of a smile. Abbado’s first movement is taut and fast, the second elegant, at a more flowing speed than Levine’s, with the Minuet clipped and a little fierce at the fast speed we expect nowadays, and like Levine Abbado observes repeats within the da capo. Only in the finale does the performance relax in the way that delighted me so much on the earlier discs.
The Sinfonia concertante has two of the Berlin Philharmonic’s distinguished principals as soloists. Both Rainer Kussmaul and Wolfram Christ are outstanding artists, each with individual expressive imagination, who yet co-ordinate with Abbado as they would simply as members of the orchestra. Those used to performances with regular virtuoso soloists may feel that this reading lacks a little in character, but the cohesion and intensity are most impressive. For such an approach I would have preferred a rather less close balance for the soloists, and I still think a live recording would have been even more magnetic, but for this unusual coupling, in brilliant performances warmly recorded, no one is going to be seriously disappointed.'