Est 1923

Mozart Thamos, König in Agypten

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Label: Archiv Produktion

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 54

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 437 556-2AH

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Thamos, König in Ägypten, 'Thamos, King of Egy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
Alastair Miles, Bass
English Baroque Soloists
John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor
Monteverdi Choir
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
Mozart's choruses and entr'actes for the Gebler play, Thamos, Konig in Aegypten, his sole incidental dramatic music, are much less well known than they deserve to be. He composed them in the late 1770s, probably in two groups—the entr'actes and the finale in 1776, when the play was given in Salzburg, and the choruses some three years later. The four entr'actes, all in different (though quite closely related) keys, would unfortunately not quite make a good concert item, and in any case the music is very specific in its expression in a way that doesn't encourage adaptation to concert use— it would, I imagine, work wonderfully alongside the dramatic tensions of the play. The first is a C minor piece, fiery and full of powerful gestures; the second, an Andante in E flat, represents the characters of the noble King Thamos and the treacherous Pheron (the play is set in Egypt, at the Heliopolis shrine to the sun, but there any resemblance to Die Zauberflote ends); then comes one in a stormy G minor leading to a more docile B flat, originally (though happily not here) to be heard against spoken words; and lastly there is a passionate movement in D minor (ending in the major). There are three choruses, the first two of which exist in alternative versions, of which Gardiner slightly oddly includes the earlier in the main text and the later, rather more richly worked, versions in the appendix (Mozart left the second of these unfinished which suggests that it might have been better to regard the later versions as the definitive ones). The third incorporates a fine bass solo in the later version (decisively sung here by Alastair Miles) but in the earlier there is only an orchestral piece, more effective than musically interesting.
John Eliot Gardiner directs all this music in vivid fashion, with precise articulation, plenty of electricity in the rhythms, powerful accents and a wide dynamic range. Mozart wrote prominent wind parts and Gardiner makes sure they ring effectively through the textures. His tempos are fast: the D minor entr'acte has you on the edge of your seat, but possibly the E flat is too quick to make much of its expressive character—I was sorry in particular that the oboist had so little time to shape his music, intended to represent Thamos. The choral singing is of course first-rate and the tone of ritual and grandeur in the big choruses is finely caught.'

Mozart Thamos, König in Agypten

Thamos, König in Ägypten, 'Thamos, King of Egy

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