[ Harmonia Mundi / 5 CD Box Set ]
Release Date: Friday 10 March 2023
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The alpha and omega of Mozart! With Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782), probably his first absolute masterpiece, and Die Zauberflöte (1791 - the year of his death), René Jacobs penetrates to the heart of Mozartian singspiel. Featuring singers, a chorus and an orchestra ideally suited to the works, these two complete recordings are now among the benchmarks of the discography.
"With a generally youthful cast boasting some lovely voices, the music is equally captivating. Jacobs is all about excitement and making the most of orchestral detail...Full of surprises, Jacobs's account is a real game-changer: we will never listen to this multi-faceted masterpiece in the same way again." - BBC
"his is a total experience, perfectly tailored for private listening. René Jacobs thinks of it as a Hörspiel: it's a play to be heard - I don't know a recorded Zauberflöte more thrillingly alive with fantasy, profoundly musical imagination, real magic, and real fun too." - BBC Music Magazine
"As ever, Jacobs favours lively speeds, light articulation and pungent, colourful textures...I suspect I shall reach for this new recording as often as any, for its bubbling, crackling theatricality and an eager, yet unforced, sense of fun that never short-changes the opera's central message of human enlightenment." - Gramophone