モーツァルトの交響曲全集は、これまでにも、カ－ル・ベーム指揮のベルリン・フィルや、ホグウッド指揮のエンシェント室内管弦楽団の演奏を聴いていましたが、以前から聴きたい演奏だったことと、送料込みで日本円換算２，８３１円と安かったので、買いました。（ＨＭＶでは同じ輸入盤が８，１９５円もします。）
参考までに、もっとも参考になった米アマゾンのカスタマー・レヴューを引用します。
Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert turn in the best period instrument Mozart Symphony cycle around. With 20-30 players, the English Concert sounds full and rich, and are so well recorded, one could mistake them for a modern instrument chamber orchestra augmented with more players for a bigger sound. The early symphonies employ fewer players, the symphonies from about No. 20 and following call for more players, in some cases trumpets, horns and timpani in addition to the usual strings, harpsichord, flutes, oboes, and bassoon.
Pinnock chooses perfect tempos for the English Concert: allegros are spritely, but not driven and there's never a sense that the musicians are having trouble keeping up at Pinnock's tempos. Andante movements sing with the cantabile quality Mozart is famous for, and are always musical and flowing: very beautiful.
I am not a big fan of period instrument Mozart. I have heard Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music (L'Oiseau Lyre) in Mozart Symphonies 34, 38, 39, and 41 and that's enough to give me a sense that Pinnock is superior - more confident, and better recorded - to Hogwood in this music. Haydn's symphonies seem to work better with period instruments than do Mozart's, but Pinnock and the English Concert have a special musical quality which MAKE Mozart work with a period orchestra. Incidentally, both Pinnock and Hogwood have recorded very fine Haydn Symphonies with their respective orchestras.
I have also read, in AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE (July/August 2005 issue) in a review of the Mozart Symphonies with Linden/Mozart Academy of Amsterdam, a period orchestra (Brilliant Classics set) that Pinnock's Mozart cycle is to be preferred. I have not heard Linden myself, but ARG's review states that with the exception of Symphonies 20, 39, 40, and 41, Pinnock "wins across the board." The reviewer cites sour tuning, below standard pitch, sloppy playing, not enough contrasts of dynamic range and pokey allegros, as liabilites which are especially annoying in Linden's cycle, and advises the reader to go with Pinnock if looking for a period cycle of Mozart symphonies.
Other options? Bohm/Berlin Philharmonic (DG); Krips/Concertgebouw (for Symphonies 21-41, Philips); Hans Graf/Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg (Capriccio); and Nicholas Ward/Northern Chamber Orchestra, modern instrument chamber orchestra (for early symphonies, Naxos). But unless you really hate period instruments, you will like Pinnock, as I do, and as I stated earlier: I am not a fan of period instrument Mozart.
