Kölner Akademie/Michael Alexander Willens
BIS BIS-2062 62:26 mins
A disc full of overtures might be in danger of seeming like a perpetual starter that never gets on to the main course, but Michael Alexander Willens keeps things moving at such a pace that the thought barely crosses one’s mind – at least at first. And if Mozart always spun a clever line between innovation, the musical constructs of the day and audience expectations in a particular place, there is enough structural diversity here to stave off any feeling of being shortchanged, operatically.
The Kölner Akademie is in period instrument guise, and the sound is often suitably thrilling and zippy. Willens and his orchestra find the humorous contrast between the quiet strings and the clashing percussion in the overture for Die Entführung aus dem Serail – subtlety is not the driving motif in this dance of delicacy and brashness.
The Kölner woodwinds are pinpoint accurate in Così fan Tutte despite the fast-forward speed – but here as elsewhere, sometimes one is left wondering if matters needed to move on quite so quickly. The dark timbre of Don Giovanni provides respite and magnitude, and it is fascinating to listen to the ways in which Mozart played with the musical form of the overture itself, not least as we come to La clemenza di Tito and Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute).
Yet despite the virtuosic and enjoyable exposition by Willens and the Kölner Akademie, there is still that nagging sense that we are constantly beginning and never quite getting to the place we were promised.
