What is your favorite Mozart symphony?

To Yu11375...

Thanks for all the info. I found some Berliner CD recordings on YouTube, btw.

So it looks like there was no additional remastering done to make the box set, they used the digital masters from the 80s and 90s. I expect that there will be some brash highs typical of that DG period, but most importantly do the strings sound smooth?

Thanks for your help!
(I have Bohm's 1972 Vienna/Beethoven cycle on CD, no remastering, and it sounds fantastic).

77jovian...

Forgot something: Box Set and individual CDs.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_17?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=charles+mackerras+mozart+symphonies&sprefix=Charles+Mackerras%2Cpopular%2C220

Thanks Lowrider, ordered them today

Lear, I'm an oral communicator unable to express myself as well in written word, plus I'm elderly and have little energy .
I suspect we are more talking past each other than we would disagree in person . Your little toe has forget more about music than I know .
The only way I can think to expresses it is when you hear
a LvB or Bach masterwork you are excited about what a great work they have put together .
In hearing a Mozart masterpiece you remain calm knowing at some level it could be no other way .

BTW, I've heard a number of world-class German classical
players express great admiration for Brahms craftmanship,
would you put him below the composers you mentioned in that regard ?

Hi Schubert - Brahms is an interesting case. Unlike most composers, one must remember that he literally tore up half of what he wrote. So yes, what is left is the very well crafted stuff. He was very careful to destroy anything he did which he felt was not his best effort. Imagine his output being doubled! Surely a great deal of it was still very fine music.

And by the way, I have said the same thing you did many times about my written communication. There's a reason I am a musician and not a writer. I suspect you are right that we agree more than it appears.

I am going to paraphrase what you said, and let me know if it is indeed what you meant. I think another way to say what you are saying would be that with Beethoven and Bach you hear the effort which went into the composition, whereas with Mozart it seems so effortless. This is sometimes the case with Schubert as well, definitely in the songs (though not at all with the symphonies or piano music or opera). This makes your comparison (the placing of Schubert with Mozart, I mean) make a little more sense to me, if I have indeed hit on what you mean.

This is of course not to say that it was actually effortless for Mozart, as the movie Amadeus implies. It is very well documented that he worked his butt off, in fact probably even harder than Bach and Beethoven. His output certainly would have at least equalled Bach's had he lived as long. I have said here before that I consider Mozart's the most tragic early death in the entire history of the arts.