Mozart: Symphonies Nos 39 & 40 – review

Claudio Abbado continues to move with the times: these two masterpieces flow effortlessly at speeds several notches faster than his 1980 recording of No 40 with a larger orchestra. Nothing is hurried, and everything has that trademark lyrical sculpting of the line: the opening of No 40 gently shaped to rise and fall, the second violins' chromatic inflection in the first movement return of No 39 perfectly pointed. Every detail tells, and Abbado now repeats the second halves of the finales to thrillng effect. The Orchestra Mozart's sound is not glossy: it has stringy violins and plangent individual woodwind, but they are superb players (unnamed in the booklet). This is Mozart perfectly in tune with our times.