Kurt Streit reviews

Kurt Streit, Patricia Petibon, Silvia Tro Santafé, Inga Kalna, María José Moreno, Kenneth Tarver; Chorus & Orchestra of the Teatro Real de Madrid/Ivor Bolton; dir. Claus Guth (Bel Air Classique; DVD)

Period-instrument performance has come a long way since the days when simply producing the right notes at the right time seemed an insurmountable hurdle. Standards of playing have risen enormously; yet this ease of execution has rarely led to a corresponding deepening of interpretative insight. Both John Eliot Gardiner and Arnold Östman are respected and successful Mozart conductors but, on the evidence of these two sets (both part of ongoing Mozart opera projects), the classic recordings of the past have little to fear.