Mozart Greatest Hits

Increasing ecological awareness has had an interesting side effect: classical recording companies are taking the opportunity to squeeze one more go-round out of warhorse catalog items by reissuing them in "green" packaging. The performances here date back as far as 1958, but at least the producers haven't done things completely on the cheap; there's a little insert with a tracklist and a brief but appropriate little essay about Mozart. With a few exceptions, these are all hits and all strong performances even if distinctly oversized by present-day standards. The "hits" aspect is the weaker of the two, for the chamber selections are very odd. There are no string quartets, and it would be hard to find even a devoted Mozartian who would consider the Divertimento in D major, K. 251 (the "Nannerl Septet"), one of Mozart's greatest hits. The orchestral selections are all well known, however, and there's even a certain pleasure in hearing the varied takes of the great conductors of the third quarter of the twentieth century on Mozart: the brisk pace and pleasantly astringent tone of Szell, the broad drama of Levine, and the deliberate elegance of Leinsdorf. There are three operatic arias, which is to the good; omission of vocal music is a common flaw in collections of this kind, and the reading of "Der Holle Rache," the over-the-top aria of the furious Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute by Polish coloratura soprano Zdislawa Donat (who was famed for this particular piece), is chillingly precise. Nobody's Mozart collection should end with this rather random disc, but the remastering is reasonable and the music is commute-worthy.