Unfinished & great symphonies

"The playing of the orchestra is beyond glorious, even better than it was for RCA. The woodwinds are invariably sweet-toned and characterful, with a superb oboe soloist in the Andante. Horns, trumpets, trombones, and timpani all know their place: they have presence when they need to and offer warm and full support elsewhere. But it's the string playing that really makes the performance ... if you want to hear his way with the Ninth at its best, this release is certainly the choice option".

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"This is unmistakably a performance that balances Schubert's last completed symphony right on the cusp of Romanticism. So much of the detail and the way Abbado shapes it here looks further into the 19th century and towards Bruckner, especially ... what his performance conveys most powerfully is the sense of a symphony bursting at its classical seams and pushing its expressive language as far as it will go".

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"This recording has no self-consciousness, nothing to suggest a conductor craving our attention - just a performance that captures the joy, grandeur and extremes of feeling in this symphony, without seeming to try".

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"So when it is considered for its many excellent qualities, this budget disc really deserves serious attention and earns high marks, despite its age and marketing".

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"Umiddelbart er det den stringente overdådighed, der er den største åbenbaring på Abbados allersidste tur med Schuberts 9. Symfoni. Friheden i fortolkningen er slående. Rank, vaks er den, og mens man lytter sig igennem Schuberts sidste fuldendte symfoni, vælder lyset frem gennem alle åbninger. Følelsesladet og superminutiøst ... Få år før sin død nåede han nye kunstneriske højder".

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"Schuberts 9. Symfoni i C-dur er sammen med hans strygekvintet i samme toneart et af den lille, romantiske østrigers store, sene mesterværker, og som Claudio Abbado får musikken til at udvikle sig fra smeltende blødhed frem mod en veloplagt, stram finale, er dette seneste posthume udspil med italieneren en stærk anbefaling værd".

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"Timelang er symfonien og dertil himmelsk i den særlige Schubertske forstand. Musikken går lige i hjertekulen. Der er gennem tiden blevet udgivet mange prisværdige indspilninger ... Men en ny cd, hvor Claudio Abbado dirigerer Orchestra Mozart ... er sandsynligvis den bedste nogensinde. Rygradsrislende gode anelser melder sig allerede under førstesatsens indledende horntema, og de bekræftes takt for takt ... En af de mest medrivende plader, jeg længe - nej, nogensinde! - har hørt".

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"Lyder som en Mahler-symfoni. Borte er den sødmeblandede smerte, der er kernen hos Schubert ... Intet af det kan kaldes makværk. Dertil er visionen for klar og orkesterspillet for udmærket. Men hvad Schubert angår, rammer Rattle pænt forbi".

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"Vurdering: BBC Music orchestral choice" - "There's plenty of muscular energy, yet the lines sing too ... you hear pre-echoes of the genius Schubert was soon to become".

"Vurdering: BBC music orchestral choice" - "[Abbado] reaches extraordinary heights ... Every bar surges with energy, thrust, warmth of tone, miraculous detail in even the faster passages and ... a huge joy in living, which must leave every sensitive listener stirred to the depths ... This is without doubt one of the records of a lifetime".

"Vurdering: Empfehlungen des Monats" - "Diese Aufnahme ist hinreissend. So Stimmungsvoll, so ehrlich, so berührend hat man Schuberts neunte Sinfonie selten gehört wie 2011 mit dem Orchestra Mozart unter Claudio Abbado. Alle für einen, einer für alle - dieses Motto ... trägt und prägt auch diese Aufführung".

"Maxim Emelyanychev inspires the excellent Scottish Chamber Orchestra to give the most thrilling account of Schubert's last symphony ... that I have heard in many years. The amount of noise this 'chamber' orchestra can make is amazing, and so is the propulsion of which they are capable under inspired direction ... It's not possible to listen to any of Schubert's finest works and not feel that his early death is the greatest of all artistic losses, a feeling especially reinforced by this great performance".

"This staggering recording of a "live" performance ... is the most remarkable recording of this elusive work since Furtwängler's famous Berlin account in 1951 ... Charles Mackerras conducts with a greater freedom of tempos than he ever has before ... The Philharmonia rises magnificently to what must have been an exhausting occasion".

"Luisi schaft das Kunststück, bei dem oft gespielten Werk neue Akzente zu setzen, ohne manieriert zu sein. Die Einleitung und den Schluss des ersten Satz spielt er beispielsweise sehr langsam, den zweiten Satz dagegen recht flott und damit im Einklang mit Schuberts Tempovorgaben ... Dem Orchester mangelt es allerdings an Klangschönheit".

"Orchestral choice: An excellence of this new live recording is the way Mariss Jansons and his Bavarian players subtly bring out the harmonic changes or enrichments of surrounding part-writing with which Schubert more often varies his recurrent long melodies ... The Bavarian brass and woodwind are on glowing, translucent form, and the recorded sound is warm and vibrant. In all, a release to renew one's admiration and love for this wonderful work".