Mozart's songs usually appear in single-disc collections, for to fill out two discs to make up Mozart's "complete" songs, as is done on this Naxos release, requires the inclusion of peripheral items such as the mandolin version of Die Zufriedenheit (Was frag ich viel nach Geld und Gut), K. 349; the very early An die Freude, K. 53 (which is not a setting of Schiller's poem); and Schubert's Luisens Antwort, D. 319, which appears to quote part of Mozart's Das Lied der Trennung, K. 519, and may represent an early instance of ...
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Mozart's songs usually appear in single-disc collections, for to fill out two discs to make up Mozart's "complete" songs, as is done on this Naxos release, requires the inclusion of peripheral items such as the mandolin version of Die Zufriedenheit (Was frag ich viel nach Geld und Gut), K. 349; the very early An die Freude, K. 53 (which is not a setting of Schiller's poem); and Schubert's Luisens Antwort, D. 319, which appears to quote part of Mozart's Das Lied der Trennung, K. 519, and may represent an early instance of the genre known to country music listeners as the answer song. Yet each of these is interesting in its way. The line of the mandolin-accompanied song, for example, is slightly different from its keyboard-accompanied counterpart, showing Mozart's sensitivity to even very small musical details. And, as a recorded edition, this set has several things to recommend it. Dividing the music between a soprano and a tenor is helpful, for some of the songs have strong female or male perspectives...
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