HR-SINFONIEORCHESTER

When Riccardo Minasi conducts Mozart, the symphonist becomes a real dramatist and the concert podium becomes an unleashed opera stage. But that's not all: two US-Americans also ensure that the classical standard is shaken up in a powerful and rousing way. There's no mistaking it: Aaron Copland wrote his clarinet concerto for the jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman, it swings and breathes, it pulsates and dances - especially when interpreted by an expressive musician like Martin Fröst. But the old master of US symphonic music is William Grant Still: he was the first African-American whose works were performed by a leading orchestra such as the New York Philharmonic: the time came in 1935 with the ‘Afro-American Symphony’, in which spirituals and blues find their orchestral format. Conductor Minasi contrasts the primal musical forces of 20th century America with those of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. And these will be no less pulsating and furious under his baton, as the Italian with his roots in historical performance practice is regarded as the man of the hour when it comes to radical Mozart vitalisation.
(hr-Sinfonieorchester - Frankfurt Radio Symphony)