COMPOSERS: Salieri
LABELS: Chandos
WORKS: Symphonies, Overtures & Variations
PERFORMER: London Mozart Players/Matthias Bamert
CATALOGUE NO: CHAN 9877
Mozart’s famed rival was certainly adept at ceremonial or buffo brilliance; he also had a flair for colourful scoring. On the downside, there is something inescapably chilly about Salieri’s invention; and his limited harmonic palette is tactlessly emphasised by the surfeit of D major here. Performances, if a touch sleek, are lively and carefully shaped. Richard Wigmore