Neville Marriner’s tried and trusty early-’70s recordings of the earliest Mozart symphonies, originally released on Philips LPs, are reappearing on four PentaTone SACDs. As is the case with many PentaTone discs, these are DSD remasterings of original 4-track analog tapes Philips made in anticipation of a “quadraphonic” boom that didn’t materialize. They are released in multi-channel format for the first time here.
Marriner recorded all of Mozart’s known (or suspected) symphonies with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields around 1970. All were very well received and are well-known commodities, including their claim to stylistically-informed modern-instrument Classical Era performances at a time just prior to the “period-instrument” revolution. Marriner’s approach was like a draft of fresh spring water following years of stale, over-sentimentalized Mozart. The lines are clean, the size of the ensemble is just right, and the playing is spotless. I have long regarded the earliest symphonies as the most valuable part of the Marriner project, and I welcome their reappearance here, better than ever in amazingly fresh, noise-free SACD remastering. PentaTone presents the exact 4-channel sound the original engineers heard in 1973. The rear channels are a little bit more evident than is often the case today, and in general the engineering effectively portrays the environment of a lively, smallish concert space.
The heart of the program is three symphonies that, if they are authentic Mozart (musicologists are not unanimous on this point), were written on the Italian trips he took as a teenager. The well-attested Symphony No. 20 is the most substantial work, while the sinfonia from the opera La finta giardinera (also known as K. 196) makes a sprightly program finale. The best moments here occur in some of the slow movements, particularly the yearning Andante of K. 96–but then there’s something to enjoy here at nearly every turn.
