Any conductor whose transformative experience was hearing Reger's Mozart Variations is obviously a conductor in a million. Likewise an orchestra whose calling card is Reger's Mozart Variations and whose principal conductors' have always made a specialty of the work is obviously an orchestra in a million. And yet here is
Herbert Blomstedt with his beloved
Dresden Staatskapelle performing Reger's Mozart Variations as if the work weren't thick, turgid, and torpid, but rather warmly lyrical, radiantly colorful, and deeply soulful. And beyond all hope, they completely succeed in transforming the listener's appreciation of this much maligned masterpiece. No matter how many fat and sloppy or scrawny and scrappy performances of the work one has heard in the past,
Blomstedt and the
Staatskapelle turn in a supple and shapely performance culminating in a graceful fugue that blows them all off the shelf. For Reger's Mozart Variations alone, this disc would be worth getting.
But that's not the end of the marvels on this disc.
Blomstedt and the
Staatskapelle follow up their Reger with a brilliant performance of Schumann's Konzerstücke for four horns with principal hornist
Peter Damm and the orchestra's horns that's easily as delightful, as colorful, and as thrilling as the best ever recorded. But not even that's the end of the marvels. After a robust and atmospheric reading of Weber's Obereon Overture,
Blomstedt and the
Staatskapelle turn in a heart-swelling performance of Johann Gottlieb Naumann's Te Deum, a performance of such splendor, such conviction, and such infectious energy that it makes you want to stand up and sing along. Captured in deep if somewhat distant sound by Hänssler, these performances will gratify the most discerning taste and confound the most discriminating curmudgeon.