Home listening - Savall’s Mozart, Bavouzet’s Haydn – and more Mozart

The Guardian 0

Jordi Savall misses a golden opportunity, while Jean-Efflam Bavouzet sparkles in Volume 8 of his Haydn cycle

• Mozart’s glorious three last symphonies are an enduring mystery: why were they written so close together in the summer of 1788; where and when were they performed? Nikolaus Harnoncourt proposed that they were conceived as one “instrumental oratorio”, and now Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations have recorded them on two discs as The Symphonic Testament (Alia Vox). In an attempt to relate the three symphonies to each other, Savall includes No 39 and 40 on the first disc, then 40 and 41 on the second: a perfect opportunity to include the two differently scored versions of 40, but bizarrely he does not, just repeating the same performance – rather poor value.

This is a pity because, as usual with Savall, the performances have bags of energy and drive. The small number of strings play with sophisticated phrasing and the wind are excellent. The problem is that the boomy acoustic emphasises blaring single brass notes, and the timpani and basses have a woolly impact, which undermines the sharpness of the ensemble. Enjoyable, but a missed opportunity for something great.