One of the main reasons why historically informed performances have found favor with a wide audience is because of their extraordinary clarity: almost every note is audible and important details and secondary voices are heard pretty much as the composer intended. Yet the downside of such performances is just as often this clinical precision, which in the studio can be deadening to a piece of music, despite the musicians' best intentions. So imagine a recording where everything is meticulously played but also filled with the ...
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One of the main reasons why historically informed performances have found favor with a wide audience is because of their extraordinary clarity: almost every note is audible and important details and secondary voices are heard pretty much as the composer intended. Yet the downside of such performances is just as often this clinical precision, which in the studio can be deadening to a piece of music, despite the musicians' best intentions. So imagine a recording where everything is meticulously played but also filled with the energy of live performance, and something like Douglas Boyd's exceptional concert performances of Mozart's Symphonies No. 40 and No. 41 should come to mind. These compelling recordings with the Manchester Camerata have extraordinary separation of parts, crisp accentuation, and vividly highlighted lines, so Mozart's most complex polyphony becomes transparent, even in the densest developmental sections of these late symphonies. Yet Boyd doesn't just play the role of counterpoint cop,...
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