446. Amadeus (Soundtrack) - Mozart, Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (Chaos34 ranked #8)
This is a week old, but I figured I'd get back to a couple of mine that I didn't discuss. Anything ranked this high, top dozen or so, are musical security blankets to me. Some are classic rock, some are prog, some are classical and some are jazz. One is none of the above.
Pip, this is the one I said had 13 words in the artist's name. Krista, I thought you'd join me here. Purists criticize this as "chocolate Mozart" - too sweet, not true to the composer's intention. It's mostly true, but conductor's have done similar forever, and Marriner had his own good intentions for this. He was making a film score for the masses, not doing Mozart for the purists. Classical composers have a way of making your ears struggle to appreciate a quiet flute drifting in the background before slamming you with the full force of a huge orchestra. It can be unsettling and not necessarily made for modern ears. Marriner tamed that for Amadeus. Pushed the faders up for quiet parts and brought them down to ease that discomforting drama. Chocolate Mozart.
Like the Brubeck that many love, this is classical music anyone can appreciate. It helps that it's Mozart, arguably the greatest composer of them all, though Beethoven and Bach can also stake claims to that, and also made my list. It helps even further that in a bit of a cheat, Marriner made a greatest hits album here. How else to tell his story? From the epic part of his greatest symphony, to The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, the pop sounding Eine Kliene Nachtmusik, a couple of his greatest piano concertos, Requiem, Lacrimosa -- this is plenty of Mozart's best. It also helped that Marriner's huge budget attracted some of the best talent of the era to supplement his chamber orchestra. Then there's the mixing and mastering talent of a Hollywood studio, the fantastic movie associated with the music and it's just a great "album" for me.
Ya know how sometimes you're hungry but don't know what you want? That happens with music sometimes. This is a good listen at times like that. Every album so far and going forward owes a debt somewhere down the line to Mozart. I'd avoid the greatest hits and go with Gran Partita if someone wants to add it to the playlist.
Salieri explains.
