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Daniel Hope - Journey to Mozart is finely focused and characterful / theStrad

‘I am completely in awe at the scale of his genius,' writes Daniel Hope about Mozart. A pure Mozart album would be too easy, though, and Hope takes the thoughtful route – a ‘Journey to Mozart'. So there's one of Haydn's charming but light concertos and slow movements by Josef Mysliveček – a friend and mentor of Mozart's – and Johann Peter Salomon, the violinist who enticed Haydn to London. The sound in these strings-and-harpsichord-accompanied works is finely focused and characterful.

The disc is topped by two instrumental selections from Gluck's Orfeo and tailed by the ‘Turkish Rondo' from Mozart's A major Sonata. The Furies' Sturm und Drang is accentuated by some unscheduled sul ponticello, while the violin substitutes for the Blessed Spirits' more usual flute. The Rondo is a riot, Hope's violin vying with harpsichord for the spotlight, and a kitchenette of various ‘exotic' percussion instruments. All in all, it makes quite a journey.

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