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Mozart in 60 Minutes - The Magic Flute - Kremsmünster Quartet Version
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart in 60 Minutes - The Magic Flute - Kremsmünster Quartet Version

Ars Antiqua Austria | Gunar Letzbor

Label: Challenge Classics
Format: CD
Barcode: 0608917200317
barcode
Catalog number: CC 720031
Releasedate: 15-01-27
- 60 minutes of Mozart: The Magic Flute in a unique quartet version
- A rare historical arrangement from Kremsmünster Abbey
- Mozart’s iconic melodies, reimagined for four strings
- An intimate new perspective on one of Mozart’s greatest operas
- Brought to life by Ars Antiqua Austria and Gunar Letzbor
Mozart’s The Magic Flute as you have rarely heard it: stripped of voices, stage and orchestra, yet losing none of its magic. Ars Antiqua Austria and Gunar Letzbor bring to life a remarkable historical string quartet arrangement preserved in the archives of Kremsmünster Abbey. From the famous overture and Papageno’s "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja" to the Queen of the Night’s "Der Hölle Rache...", Mozart’s melodies emerge in an intimate new guise, distilled into exactly sixty minutes of music.

Far from being a mere reduction of the opera, this anonymous arrangement reveals an imaginative and highly skilled hand, transforming Mozart’s score into a richly sonorous work for four string instruments. In returning as closely as possible to the surviving source material, Ars Antiqua Austria opens a window onto the vibrant musical culture of Mozart’s time, when arrangements allowed great operas and symphonies to travel far beyond the major musical centres. The result is both historical rediscovery and living music: familiar melodies heard afresh, with an immediacy, transparency and intimacy all their own.