There are three crucial differences between Claudio Abbado's 1991 recording of three Mozart symphonies with the Berliner Philharmoniker and this 2008 recording of five Mozart symphonies with the Orchestra Mozart. The first and most obvious is between the two orchestras. The Berliner Philharmoniker, of course, is one of the world's great modern instrument orchestras, while the Orchestra Mozart is a newly founded period instrument orchestra and the difference in sound between the two is enormous. Where the Berlin-based musicians sound is big, bright, and virtuosic, the Italy-based musicians sound is smaller, warmer, and, though superbly trained and very enthusiastic, hardly in the same league as the Berlin players.The second and almost as obvious is between the two scores used in the performances. Where Abbado used the then-standard editions of the works in his 1991 recording, he 2008 he uses the New Bärenreiter Urtext Edition, which makes small but telling changes in hundreds of details of articulation, dynamics, and even pitches. Though the changes do not alter the music's substance, they do subtly alter their tone and color. The third and biggest difference, however, is in the quality of Abbado's conducting. In 1991, the Italian maestro was at the peak of his powers, and his interpretations were sharp-edged and powerful. By 2008, however, Abbado had survived cancer and a tumultuous personal life, and his interpretations here are more nuanced, more affectionate, and much more profound. Abbado has reconsidered everything in the scores from dynamic markings to tempo relationships, and his conducting here finds depths in the music his 1991 recordings missed. Captured in crisp but slightly distant live digital sound by Deutsche Grammophon, these recordings deserve to be heard by anyone interested in the conductor or the composer.© TiVo

The Haydn series continues with the Paris Symphony No. 87. Julien Chauvin and his orchestra keep shaking us up with historical instruments listening to Haydn’s works and several other forgotten scores from the same period. All of them were commissioned for the Concert de la Loge Olympique - ancestor and model for Julien Chauvin and his musicians – and all of them sank into oblivion during the 19th century, except for Haydn’s symphonies. The record offers an opportunity to experience some rare works of Grétry, Lemoyne and Ragué, and to revive the success that they once knew. © Aparté

Werner Ehrhardt and Concerto Köln's recordings of the symphonies of Joseph Martin Kraus, originally released as two separate discs on the Capriccio label in the early '90s, helped lead the charge for the reintegration of Kraus into the classical canon. By 2009, when these Concerto Köln are being reintroduced on the Phoenix Edition label as a single, two-disc set, Kraus has become one of the most frequently recorded late eighteenth century composers whose name isn't Haydn, Beethoven, or Mozart. While some of these performances are not as snappy and alert as those for Naxos by Petter Sundkvist and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, they still pack a punch. Ehrhardt's reading of the Sinfonia da chiesa is superb as he grasps its near Brucknerian sense of architectonics and his Symphonie funèbre is appropriately grim, hushed, restrained, and patient. Both of these are on the first disc of the set, and it's still true, as when these were single Capriccio issues, that the second disc (now reordered as first) is a little better than the other one. The early digital recordings are still fine, though a bit warmer than is the standard for Kraus, though that's not a bad thing at all. The final factor on the Phoenix Edition reissue -- and this may well be the determinant one for many consumers -- is that the two discs are being sold for the price of one; while these do not constitute all of Kraus' symphonies, it is a consumer-friendly way to get acquainted with roughly half of Joseph Martin Kraus' symphonic output.© TiVo

This was what it used to be like in classical music: a hot young soloist offers a newly commissioned work along with a fresh interpretation of a warhorse, and it's released with some fanfare on a major label. It doesn't happen that often anymore, but Hilary Hahn, a student of the last student of Eugène Ysaÿe, shows that there's life in the old model yet. The new work was commissioned by Hahn herself and grew out of her association with the composer, Jennifer Higdon, at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. The concerto won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2010, and Higdon's colorfully orchestrated music in general has been popular among American orchestras. But the concerto is closely tailored to Hahn's individual style, with its combination of steely flawlessness and delicate lyricism. Whether it will take off among other performers remains to be seen, but a real marriage of composer and performer comes through here (and of course the virtuoso concertos of the 19th century all had their individual champions). But it comes off beautifully here, unfolding with seeming inevitability from the lovely opening passage in harmonics through the beautifully orchestrated first movement in which the violin engages in both solo heroics and dialogues with various orchestral groupings; the flute, Higdon's own instrument, is prominently featured. The movement's title, "1726," refers not to any neo-Baroque quality one might expect from the "Chaconi" slow movement of multiple ground basses, but to the street address of the Curtis Institute. It's unclear how the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko were chosen for this project, but they keep up well with a difficult new score. Hahn's take on the Tchaikovsky Violin Concert in D major, Op. 35, isn't a barn-burner, but is quite persuasive, with a precise control of pitch that never becomes robotic because the texture of her violin sound, from pearly to wiry, is so lively and constantly in motion. Hahn's tempos are on the slow side, and she tends to open up a line rather than blaze through it. It's not a peformance that will bring you to your feet, but it does hang in the mind. Another engrossing release from one of America's strongest young violinists. Booklet notes, with a reflection by Hahn along with more formal notes by Lynne S. Mazza, are in English only.© TiVo

Download not available