The browser noticing this disc might be forgiven for thinking that the current trend toward recording obscure works of the classical period had gone too far. Not only does it present a work by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, otherwise known almost exclusively as the man who completed Mozart's Requiem under sleazy circumstances after the composer's death -- it also offers that work in an arrangement for winds by an even more obscure composer, Johann Nepomuk Wendt. But give it a spin (or a click): it's not without interest for those with a deep interest in Mozart, especially in the opera The Magic Flute. Süssmayr's opera Der Spiegel von Arkadien (The Mirror of Arcadia) was his biggest success during his own lifetime. It fell into the "heroic-comic" genre that is hard for listeners today to understand, and its librettist, Emanuel Schikaneder, wrote the libretto for Mozart's final opera. Of course, there are no texts here; what's played is a series of arrangements of the opera's music for wind ensemble, not necessarily in the order in which they originally occurred, and interspersed with arrangements of insertion arias by Hummel. It sounds bizarre, but the music as heard on the disc is harmless and pleasant. Such wind arrangements were not uncommon in Mozart's time (Wendt may have made another one of Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio), and this one remains listenable today as background music, which is perhaps how it was used by the noble families who bought them in the first place. Indeed, the music tells us something about The Magic Flute. The arias fall into some of the same types -- naïve, worshipful, ingratiating -- and one can see better why Mozart's, simple as they are, have lasted while Süssmayr's vanished with his death. The music is nicely played by the Consortium Classicum, and the recording by the German label MDG is exemplary. For hardcore Mozart geeks only, but recommended for them.
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