As late as the 1970s, Apollo et Hyacinthus was the one Mozart opera that listeners couldn't find at all on records -- the record companies presumably figured "after all, how good can it be? Mozart composed it when he was 11." Indeed, Leopold Hager was the first conductor to record Apollo et Hyacinthus in 1981, and its fortunes have hardly improved since then. This Brilliant Classics recording, made for a gigantic Mozart Edition in 2006 by Nicol Matt leading the pseudo-anonymous European Chamber Soloists, is only the fourth ...
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As late as the 1970s, Apollo et Hyacinthus was the one Mozart opera that listeners couldn't find at all on records -- the record companies presumably figured "after all, how good can it be? Mozart composed it when he was 11." Indeed, Leopold Hager was the first conductor to record Apollo et Hyacinthus in 1981, and its fortunes have hardly improved since then. This Brilliant Classics recording, made for a gigantic Mozart Edition in 2006 by Nicol Matt leading the pseudo-anonymous European Chamber Soloists, is only the fourth studio recording of the work ever made -- an unimaginably low total for a Mozart opera. Brilliant has done well to single out its recording of Apollo et Hyacinthus for separate release, especially as it is the only recorded version of the opera available outside of large, multi-disc collections of Mozart's operas or works in general.Nevertheless, that doesn't answer the question as to whether Apollo et Hyacinthus is any good or not. Surprisingly, it is -- the recitatives are...
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