The Kammerakademie Potsdam is essentially a regional group. It doesn't have the silken smoothness of the famed Continental chamber orchestras, but then, that's not what it's aiming at, and conductor Antonello Manacorda has shaped it into a distinctive ensemble. At 40 players, the group has recorded Schubert and Mendelssohn symphonies to critical acclaim and generated the feeling that their modern-instrument but historically informed performances resembled how the music might have sounded when it was first played. Their ...
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The Kammerakademie Potsdam is essentially a regional group. It doesn't have the silken smoothness of the famed Continental chamber orchestras, but then, that's not what it's aiming at, and conductor Antonello Manacorda has shaped it into a distinctive ensemble. At 40 players, the group has recorded Schubert and Mendelssohn symphonies to critical acclaim and generated the feeling that their modern-instrument but historically informed performances resembled how the music might have sounded when it was first played. Their Mozart is no less lively, although the quick tempos and slightly rough, abrupt playing are perhaps less well suited to Mozart than to Schubert and Mendelssohn. At the speeds at which Manacorda takes the Minuet of the Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, the brass tend to overwhelm the strings, but listeners may have various reactions, and there's a brisk quality to the whole that's refreshing. The rousing yet complex finale of the Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551, succeeds on all...
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