Mozart was just 11 when this first of his stage works had its premiere at Salzburg University on May 13th, 1767. It was designed as an intermedio to complement the progress of a Latin tragedy on ''The Clemency of Croesus'', a worthy moral drama especially written for the occasion by a Benedictine monk (and professor of philosopy) called Rufinus Widl, and since the play had five acts plus this 'comedy intermezzo' that itself lasts 80 minutes we can only reflect ruefully on times more leisurely than our own, and audiences with more patience and stamina as well.
Save for the tenor role of the Laconian King Oebalus, all the parts in this Wunderkind's opera were taken at the first performance by choirboys, and a 12-year-old called Christian Enzinger played Hyacinthus—with whom Apollo falls in love in the original Greek legend, although the worthy Dom Rufinus tactfully modified the tale by providing him with a sister called Melia who attracts the god's attention instead. In the Pavane Prestige account of this work, billed as a recording premiere of the original version, boys of 12 and 13 from the Bad Tolz Boys' Choir play Hyacinthus, Melia, Apollo and Zephyrus. But in the version from Philips we have adult singers.
Here is a case of roundabouts and swings, for while such artists as Arleen Auger and Edith Mathis bring the skill and refinement of long experience to their roles, the boys' voices for which Mozart wrote (with altos as Apollo and Zephyrus) also give something especially fresh to the music, even if Sebastien Pratschke's vocal immaturity is a disadvantage in a florid aria such as Hyacinthus's ''Saepe terrent Numina'', on track 7 of the first disc in this version, where, not surprisingly, Edith Mathis offers more vocal resource, albeit of a more conventional kind. And do we really want a boy singing Melia, particularly when Christian Fliegner (aged 13) sounds definitely strained compared with Arleen Auger in the joyful Act 2 aria ''Laetari, iocari''? On the other hand, Christian Gunther sounds more convincing (despite a couple of intonational lapses) than Cornelia Wulkopf in the grave Apollo's Air two tracks later, and so does his fellow alto Philippe Cieslewicz as the devious Zephyrus in his aria on the second disc, before Apollo arrives to turn the murderous youth into a wind.
You pays your money and you takes your choice, in fact, and the pluses and minuses continue. Thus, while Anthony Rolfe Johnson does fine justice to the 'adult' role of King Oebalus who is the father of Hyacinthus and Melia (but so does the young German tenor, Markus Schafer), one can regret Philips's use of female voices for Apollo and Zephyrus, for, skilful though the singers are in these roles, they are not sufficiently masculine-sounding, nor very dissimilar tonally, and Hanna Schwarz has a marked vibrato. But in an ideal world one might hope to possess both of these recordings, for either will give pleasure. Although the music itself is inevitably often conventional, it is more interesting and vocally ambitious than the circumstances of its composition might suggest—those Salzburg boys were certainly good singers! It holds the attention when done as well as this and there are moments that are genuinely touching and exciting. Clearly, too, here was a born opera composer revealing himself for the first time both to himself and to the musical world: some of his own youthful excitement in this discovery comes across clearly. The Pavane Prestige recording, made in Grasse near Nice (which city also provides the small-sounding but effective orchestra), has a natural and pleasing acoustic and balance. However, while its booklet gives the text in Latin, French and English, these versions are not together, so that one has to skip 18 pages from the opening recitative to follow both the sung Latin and one's native English. Philips do better here by giving us a parallel translation into these languages and German as well. For anyone not fluent in Latin, the many lengthy recitatives will probably seem too much of a good thing: the one telling of Hyacinthus's 'accident' from a thrown discus, that begins the second disc in both versions, lasts nearly six minutes. The French recording has more tracks and access to the various numbers is thus somewhat easier. One can't help adding that it's a pity, when discs lasting 80 minutes are now possible, that both these recordings of Apollo et Hyacinthus require two, while noting that the Philips issue is at midprice.
To sum up, anyone in the process of acquiring Philips' Complete Mozart Edition need not hesitate to purchase their highly professional issue, which was well recorded, though not digitally, by DG in Salzburg in 1981. Since the Salzburg Chamber Choir are good too (though they have little to do), this would be my choice in terms of cultivated vocal quality. Yet it will be a shame if in consequence the fresher alternative version from France, but with German singers, does not receive attention, for it, too, has much to commend it in that it is closer to what Mozart would have imagined and then heard in Salzburg, and the scene in which the dying Hyacinthus tells the King of Zephyrus's guilt is moving here, where on Philips it is merely polished. The boy Mozart's music undoubtedly gains much from the young voices, and hearts, that give of their best in the Pavane Prestige issue.'