Music : Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos

Rating: - Excellent Mozart
I agree with the other reviewers here: this is a marvellous set, and a real bargain, too. Not only do you get all five of the Violin Concertos, but the sublime Sinfonia Concertante too, and all in impeccable performances.

Grumiaux was universally hailed as a truly great violinist and a wonderful interpreter of Mozart, and he shows why in this set. His technique is superb, he uses his virtuosity to show the music to its best advantage rather than to draw attention to the virtuosity itself and he has real feeling without ever slipping into schmaltz. For example, the well-known (perhaps over-exposed) Adagio of K216 is sublime, uplifting and heart-string tugging stuff without a hint of sentimentality; just sheer beauty, beautifully expressed. I have never come across recordings I prefer to these, and there are some very fine ones available so that's high praise indeed.

The LSO under Colin Davis and the NPO under Raymond Leppard produce the excellence you would expect from such fine conductors and orchestras, and the whole adds up to extremely fine music-making. The remastering of the recordings from the 1960s is excellent, producing a fine, warm, clear sound. The only minor gripe I have is that, as with all the Philips Duo releases, the packaging looks rather cheap and the notes are sketchy. The music more than makes up for this, though.

In short, you can't go wrong with this set. As I write it's available for well under a fiver so you've nothing to lose really and a wonderful musical experience to gain. Recommended in the strongest terms.

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Rating: - Like listening to light
I have a row which is ongoing with my friend Tomas who says that Mozart is 'too light'. Listen to these recordings with the cherubic Arthur Grimaux and you will hear that he is not 'too light' but 'like light'. It is like hearing sunlight. If that sounds a bit bipolar I apologise but this music is as near to an altered state as you can achieve without recourse to chemicals (which I would never. I am keeping myself pure for Wolfgang). I play it on my MP3 player whilst cycling to work, and in the autumn sunlight with mist on the canal, I can believe in angels and taste the next life. BUY.

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Rating: - flawless mozart
Grumiaux's accounts of the Mozart concertos are impeccable.Perhaps the real joy of these perfomances is their understated simplicity. Characterised by restrained nobility, flawless technique and a sense of line and phrasing of such refinement his playing is pure magic. Sound is excellent and accompaniment most tasteful.