[Psolomon]

Hi everyone! I just got back from a LONG summer at Boston University's Tanglewood Institute and the Luzerne Music Center, and it's nice to be back home!
Now, while at Luzerne i had the outstanding opportunity to perform Mozart's Serenade #10 "Gran Partita", being conducted by Mark Gigliotti (Bassoonist w/ the Philadelphia orchestra). I. LOVE. THIS. PIECE. I honestly think this is my absolute FAVORITE pieces ever composed by Mozart (and yes, that includes the clarinet concerto)!! I was looking all throughout Spotify and iTunes to find the best possible recording of this serenade, but i've found a lot of different results, and i'm finding it difficult to pick. What recordings do you guys recommend as being the best? Historically recreated would be preferred, but honestly whichever sounds best and has the best interpretation in your guys' opinion.
(please don't blame me if this starts a flame war)
-Phillip

 

[Psolomon]

Just realized i posted this in the wrong thread!! can a mod move this??

 

[bandmommy]

It's one of my favourites too.
I don't have a 'best' recording. Every one offers something that I really like...

 

[lomaserena]

You lucky devil! Congrats on a fantastic summer of music-making.
I've got two recordings of K361. One is the first classical recording I ever bought, Otto Klemperer conducting a London all-star pickup band. I think it was released by EMI in the '60's. Broad tempi, romantic interpretation, but the playing is exceptional. And, he uses a contrabassoon instead of a string bass! Once you hear it with a contrabassoon, a string bass (as indicated in the score) just sounds weak and inappropriate. The other recording is original instruments, Collegium aureum on harmonia mundi. Fine playing, and much more authentic classical style, but the instruments limit what the players can do (non-resonant notes, intonation issues, etc.). The better the quality of the music, and along with the K375 and K388 Serenades this music is about as good as it gets, the less patience I have for the limitations of original instruments. There are a ton of recordings out there, many you can sample on youtube. Get busy and find your favorite!

 

[lomaserena]

I took my own advice, and checked out youtube. There's a broadcast performance by the Cleveland Orchestra Winds from 1969 (Szell, Marcellus, Mack, etc.). All I can say is WOW! Sound isn't great, but the musicianship cuts right through the bad sound. The best I've heard. Worth a listen.

 

[gary]

Well, hard to have heard all of them, LOL, but I really like Furtwangler's with Vienna. Fidelity, of course, is not what a modern recording would be. I was googling to see if it was in print and stumbled across this. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBBD3AE4748268AED

For a modern recording, I really like the Amsterdam Wind Ensemble's version with Edo de Waart.

Also, Harnoncourt on period instruments, always a treat. While on YouTube, I noticed this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrLplgSCkO0

Phillip, just as an aside, you might be interested that I've had the pleasure - actually awe - of seeing the Mozart's actual score. Why, I don't know, but the score is at the Library of Congress. I was taking a graduate level literature of winds course in D.C and the professor had a connection at the Library, so one day we went over there into the dark, recesses of a heavily secured area and the archivist brought the score out to us. Wow!

 

[andrewbowie]

+ 1 for Furtwangler. There is also a very good modern Berlin Phil Winds recording, on Orfeo. Don't have any time for the period performances: this is music of the future, so why tie it to the past?

 

[Psolomon]

Regarding Berliner Philharmoniker, i can say that they're easily one of my top favorite orchestras, and i'm eyeballing a recording of Berlin Phil winds with Zubin Meta

 

[rzzzzz]

I stumbled onto the Wiener Mozart-Blaser/Harnoncourt on Teldec. Very much a contrast with the version so much discussed in the movie, the former whizzing by at a much less measured pace.

 

[clarnut]

Check out

http://www.bostonrecords.com/servlet/the-109/Marcel-Moyse/Detail

with the Marlboro alumni and the great Harold Wright on clarinet

and

http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Serena...5982288&sr=8-1&keywords=gran+partita+st+lukes

with the Orchestra of St Lukes

 

[Marlborough Man]

I dig the Mehta/Berlin recording, but like the Sabine Meyer recording even better. The Neville Marriner is cool. You can't go wrong with any of these.

But my favorite performance of all was a live one broadcast from Tanglewood when I was a kid. I taped it...Harold Wright sounded fantastic. But the highlight was in the last mvt, when the pricipal oboe totally lost his fingers in a solo, moving at Mach 3, and just started flailing around..."babba dabba beebidy dop dope bwa-dah!!!" all the way to the end. Best oboe solo break I ever heard!!!! The cat was SCREAMIN'!!!

Wish I hadn't lost that tape....I'd buy a transfer system just to keep it....