Vienna in November 1947 was probably not the best of places to be. The city, with much still
destroyed, was under post-war Russian military occupation and money,
morale and comfort must have been low. Nevertheless, the
indefatigable Walter Legge was there, with the superb balance
engineer Douglas Larter and they met up with Wilhelm Furtwängler and
the wind players of the Vienna Philharmonic to record Mozart's Gran
Partita for 13 wind instruments, K 361. The result, to my ears, has
always been one of the golden classics of recording. Mozart played in
the style of old Vienna with much love and affection from players and
from Furtwängler, whom they had requested to direct them. Expertly
recorded back in 1947 and well transferred to CD by the highly
talented Keith Hardwick, it remains one of the jewels of my
collection of recordings. They don't play this music like that any
more!
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