Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 29, 39-41
Hungarian conductor Ferenc Fricsay's Mozart recordings, especially the operas, were among the glories of the DG catalog in the 1950s and '60s. It was in fact this conductor, and later Karl Böhm--not flashier names like Karajan and Bernstein--that carried Mozart's banner forward on disc for something like three decades. These performances are relaxed and genial, and full of the easy grace that seems to have vanished from today's Mozart, particularly those performances on so-called "authentic" instruments. A fine souvenir of a true Mozartean.--David Hurwitz