The very opening of the slow introduction to No. 39 makes it abundantly clear that Muti has no thought of being influenced by latterday ideas of period performance. Just how many strings he is using one cannot tell, but the result on the first chord is big, bold and weighty, with a Philips recording team under Volker Straus offering warm, full sound which reveals more inner detail than many recordings made in the Musikvereinsaal in Vienna. So the surprising discords in the introduction (track 1, 1'47'') come out sharply and, despite the smooth manner, the textures of the tuttis in the main Allegro are commendably clean.
My comparisons have been with James Levine’s versions for DG with this same orchestra, now available only as part of the 11-disc set of the complete symphonies. Consistently Muti’s manner in Mozart is a degree more moulded than Levine’s, even when, as in the second movement Andante of No. 39, he adopts a similar flowing speed. In No. 25, the ‘little’ G minor, Muti is fast and fierce in the first movement, with no sense that this is an early work, and in the second movement Andante, unlike Levine, he keeps the violins unmuted, bringing out more sharply the tonal contrasts with the woodwind in alternate phrases. My chief reservation over Muti’s interpretations is that he chooses slowish speeds for the minuets, pointing rhythms well but making them sound too heavy. Otherwise this can be warmly recommended to anyone who wants this unusual coupling in traditional performances with first-rate modern digital sound.'