By emphasizing energy over elegance, Iona Brown’s brisk and bracing reading of Mozart’s Symphony No. 33 encroaches on the Harnoncourt style of Mozart interpretation. Actually, Brown’s a good deal more emphatic than Harnoncourt, whose slower tempos and heavier textures sound traditional–even conservative–by comparison. The Academy plays the outer movements and scherzo with a stimulating sparkle and vigor, while the andante flows along with a graceful lightness, making for a highly enjoyable reading.
Turning to the grand and glorious Haffner, we find Brown’s tempos more aligned with Harnoncourt’s and surprisingly similar to George Szell’s early stereo-era recording, an interpretation that prefigured the biting articulation, clear textures, and propulsive energy of authentic (read: modern) performance practice. Nonetheless, the same crackling energy in Symphony No. 33 can be found here, from the bold, boisterous trumpets and drums-accented splendor of the first movement all the way to the ebullient finale. Hänssler’s sound reflects the performances–vibrant, full, and dynamic. A great Mozart disc.
