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Mozart: Adagios & Fugues (After Bach) / AAM Berlin
Release Date: 04/08/2014
Label: Harmonia Mundi Catalog #: 902159 Spars Code: DDD
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Orchestra/Ensemble: Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Number of Discs: 1
Recorded in: Stereo
Length: 0 Hours 51 Mins.
Works on This Recording
1. Fugues (5) for String Quartet after J. S. Bach, K 405: no 4 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Orchestra/Ensemble: Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Period: Classical
Written: 1782; Vienna, Austria
Length: 6 Minutes 9 Secs.
2. Fugues (5) for String Quartet after J. S. Bach, K 405: no 5 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Orchestra/Ensemble: Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Length: 4 Minutes 51 Secs.
3. Adagio and Fugue in A minor [after J. S. Bach, BWV 867 in B flat minor] by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Orchestra/Ensemble: Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Length: 6 Minutes 2 Secs.
4. Allegro in C minor, K Anh. 44 / Fuga a due Cembali, K 426 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Orchestra/Ensemble: Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Length: 4 Minutes 38 Secs.
5. Work(s): Adagio cantabile & Fugue in E flat major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Orchestra/Ensemble: Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Period: Classical
Length: 4 Minutes 1 Secs.
6. Adagio and Fugue for Strings in C minor, K 546 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Orchestra/Ensemble: Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Period: Classical
Written: 1788; Vienna, Austria
Length: 6 Minutes 37 Secs.
7. Fugues (5) for String Quartet after J. S. Bach, K 405: no 3 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Orchestra/Ensemble: Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Period: Classical
Written: 1782; Vienna, Austria
Length: 5 Minutes 14 Secs.
8. Work(s): Adagio & Fugue in B minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Orchestra/Ensemble: Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Period: Classical
Length: 6 Minutes 13 Secs.
9. Work(s): Adagio & Fugue in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Orchestra/Ensemble: Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Period: Classical
Length: 7 Minutes 28 Secs.
Notes and Editorial Reviews
Make no mistake, this is a lovely disc. It would be both interesting and enjoyable to hear arrangements of Bach fugues dating from the turn of the nineteenth century, although that is not quite what we are getting on this program. Mozart made five such arrangements, for string quartet (K. 405), and was evidently inspired to compose his own such works, the Fugue for Two Keyboards K. 426 and the famous Adagio and Fugue in C minor K. 546, both of which are included here.
As for the rest, it is deceptive to describe any of this as “by Mozart,” or indeed as having much if anything to do with him at all. In the first place, the preludes that precede the fugues are neither by Bach nor by Mozart, but are rather the work of various anonymous arrangers whose efforts were documented in certain manuscript sources used as the basis for this particular recording. Second, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin has re-scored the three pieces included here from K.405 that Mozart did arrange. This makes for a more attractive and ear-catching program for continuous listening, unquestionably, but it effectively de-Mozartifies K. 405.
So what we are left with is a fifty-one minute CD containing approximately ten minutes of authentic Mozart, followed by various wholly modern Bach arrangements having little to do with Mozart save for the fact that once upon a time he did something similar which is not contained on this alleged “Mozart does Bach” CD. I have no hesitation in recommending this disc for what it is–excellently played and recorded arrangements of Bach on period instruments, made especially for this project, plus two possibly Bach-inspired works by Mozart. Don't believe that it contains anything else.
-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
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AllMusic Review by James Manheim [-]
Titled Mozart: Adagios & Fugues (after Bach), this release by the venerable Akademie für alte Musik Berlin might more accurately be described as Arrangements after W.A. Mozart after J.S. Bach. The contents of the program are something of a mishmash, containing actual Mozart works in Bach's style; Mozart arrangements of Bach for string quartet, here slightly rescored for no very good reason; slow movements added to Mozart's arrangements taken from a manuscript of Mozart's time but apparently not by Mozart; and entirely new Bach arrangements in the Mozartian vein that have nothing to do with Mozart at all. Listeners can pick out the differences among these if they listen intently, but the question is whether they should have to do so, given the violation of truth in advertising represented by the cover. For those not bothered by that, go ahead and sample more deeply: the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, the preeminent early music group to emerge from the former East Germany, has always had a distinctive sound, lush and slightly mysterious, generated from a small group of a bit more than a dozen strings and, here, assorted other instruments. For those in search of a pleasant set of arrangements of Bach fugues, with fine sound from Berlin's Teldex Studio, this album works. For those seriously interested in what Mozart made of Bach, it's less useful.
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Early Music Today Autumn 2014
The Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin are radiant in this recording … this is glorious music beautifully played; a fascinating collection.
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Rezensionen
»Eine in Transparenz und Wiedererkennbarkeit der Stimmverläufe überzeugende Einspielung.« (Fono Forum, November 2014)
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