WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

The Violin Concertos

CD I 66:32
1-3 Violin concerto no. 1 in Bb major, KV 207
Allegro moderato – Adagio – Presto
4-6 Violin concerto no. 4 in D major, KV 218
Allegro – Andante cantabile – Rondo
7-9 Violin concerto no. 5 in A major, KV 219
Allegro aperto – Adagio – Tempo di minuetto

CD II 69:40
1-3 Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola
in Eb major, KV 364
Allegro maestoso – Andante – Presto
4-6 Violin concerto no. 3 in G major, KV 216
Allegro – Adagio – Rondo
7-9 Violin concerto no. 2 in D major, KV 211
Allegro moderato – Andante – Rondo

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About this CD

Six years of recording silence is about to come to an end! Frans Brüggen and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century are making their return in style and once more this is in partnership with Glossa – and within The Grand Tour collection (now provided with a brand new design), a cooperation which provided the home for all the orchestra's productions between 1997 and 2002. Five new titles are planned over the next 18 months, releases which are bound to be enthusiastically welcomed by the numerous devotees all over the world of this inspiring orchestra who have been continuing to enjoy the four or five tours each year that Brüggen and his musicians have been making.

From three of these tours (in Brazil and The Netherlands) originate the recordings presented here now, replete with a Thomas Zehetmair on top form and offering a lesson in judicious playing and a boundless musicality in repertory which he dominates like nobody else. With his Stradivarius of 1730 and a classical-period bow, Mozart's music sounds fresher than ever, supported moreover by an orchestra which has lost nothing of its energy since its foundation back in 1981. As a distinctive extra to the complete set of violin concertos Zehetmair and Ruth Killius engage in a superb version of the Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful ever recorded.