Mozart: Ecstasy & Abyss [LEIPZIG, 1789] Martin Fröst

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791): Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551 "Jupiter":
• 1 Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551 "Jupiter": I. Allegro vivace 11:23
• 2 Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551 "Jupiter": II. Andante cantabile 09:19
• 3 Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551 "Jupiter": III. Menuetto. Allegretto 04:11
• 4 Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551 "Jupiter": IV. Molto Allegro 08:37
• Recitative and Aria:
• 5 Mozart: Recitative and Aria: "Ch'io mi scordi di te?" - "Non temer, amato bene", K. 505 10:42
• Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503:
• 6 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503: I. Allegro maestoso 15:51
• 7 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503: II. Andante 07:24
• 8 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503: III. Allegretto 08:59
• Total Runtime 01:16:26

Info for Mozart: Ecstasy & Abyss [LEIPZIG, 1789]

Musical maverick Martin Fröst’s most ambitious Sony Classical release yet sees him as both clarinetist and conductor, joining soloists Lucas Debargue (piano), Ann Hallenberg (Mezzo-Soprano) and Elin Rombo (Soprano) and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, of which he is chief conductor, in a double-album of masterpieces capturing the paradox of Mozart’s fragile existence and extraordinary creativity.

The album called “Mozart: Ecstasy and Abyss” is now available. Each of the release’s two albums focuses on a moment in Mozart’s life when the composer appeared to teeter on a knife-edge between triumph and disaster, joy and depression, life and death. It was these moments that brought the music of the most extraordinary beauty and intensity from the composer. Included are Mozart’s sublime Clarinet Concerto, his simmering Piano Concerto No 25 (soloist Lucas Debargue), his joyous Prague and Jupiter symphonies and sparkling arias from the opera’s La clemenza di Tito (with Ann Hallenberg) and Idomeneo (with Elin Rombo).

The first album takes its inspiration from a concert Mozart gave in Leipzig in May 1789, a difficult moment in his life marked out by personal, financial and creative pressures. The second album focuses on the composer’s triumphant visit to Prague in August 1791, an ostensibly far happier period. Both albums capture the combination of playfulness and profundity, light and shade, brilliance and tragedy that characterized so many moments in Mozart’s life and career - the dichotomy that sets his best music apart.

This release marks Fröst’s recorded debut as a conductor, while he directs the orchestra in his third recording of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto from the Basset Clarinet, the variant instrument for which it was written. Martin Fröst is chief conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and frequently appears with the world’s most distinguished orchestras. In 2014, he became the first clarinetist to win the prestigious Léonie Sonning Music Prize.

Elin Rombo, soprano
Lucas Debargue, piano
Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Martin Fröst, conductor

Martin Fröst
Undoubtedly one of the most outstanding wind instrumentalists of today, Martin Fröst future highlights include debuts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchester, Orchestre National de France, Detroit Symphony and Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber, Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, Bamberger Symphoniker and NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, plus return visits to the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Luzerner Sinfonieorchester. He also returns to the Australian Chamber Orchestra following a substantial tour of Europe with them last season, and embarks on a major European tour with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta performing Weber and Copland in May 2013. Last season Martin Fröst performed with the Wiener Symphoniker, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Minnesota Orchestra (all under Osmo Vänskä), Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (Gustavo Dudamel), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen as well as the Tonkünstler, Oslo and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic orchestras. In August 2012 he made his debut at New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival performing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto under the direction of Louis Langrée.

Keen to expand the existing clarinet concerto repertoire, Martin has personally championed Anders Hillborg’s Peacock Tales (which incorporates elements of mine and dance), Kalevi Aho’s Concerto (commissioned for him by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust) and Rolf Martinsson’s Concerto Fantastique. 2012/13 sees him premiere a new concerto by Bent Sørensen with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Cologne’s Philharmonie under Michael Schønwandt.

A keen recitalist and chamber musician, Martin Fröst gave five concerts as part of a major residency at Cologne’s Philharmonie in 2010/11 including a dance programme ’Double Points’ with violinist Janine Jansen. In 2011/12 Fröst performed in venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Berlin’s Konzerthaus and the Vienna Konzerthaus. He has a long-standing association with the Verbier Festival, and this season not only appears at the festival but also with the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Schloss Elmau and on tour around Asia.

Fröst regularly collaborates with such musicians as Leif Ove Andsnes, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, Thorleif Thedéen, Roland Pöntinen and the Belcea and Apollon Musagète Quartets. Upcoming chamber appearances include performances at the Schubertiade and a series of concerts with Marc-André Hamelin and Anthony Marwood in Boston, San Francisco and London’s Wigmore Hall.

Fröst conducted a series of concerts with the Oslo Philharmonic last season, as well as conducting programmes with Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Norrkoping Symphony orchestras plus Swedish and Stuttgarter Kammerorchester. Future conducting dates include projects with Detroit Symphony and Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

Martin Fröst is the Artistic Director of the Vinterfest in Mora, and of the International Chamber Music Festival in Stavanger, Norway. He has an extensive discography for BIS, with whom he has an exclusive contract; his recent CD ‘Dances to a Black Pipe’ received substantial critical acclaim.

This album contains no booklet.