Amadeus- The Complete Original Soundtrack Recording

Amadeus The satirical sensibilities of writer Peter Shaffer and director Milos Forman (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest) were ideally matched in this Oscar-winning movie adaptation of Shaffer's hit play about the rivalry between two composers in the court of Austrian Emperor Joseph II--of...	Immortal Beloved / Sir Georg Solti (film 1994)	Amadeus: More Music From The Original Soundtrack Of The Film Amadeus	Amadeus: Original Soundtrack Recording	Immortal Beloved This sumptuous and moving 1994 film written and directed by Bernard Rose (Candyman) investigates the artistic and romantic passions of one of the greatest composers of all time. Featuring a superb performance by Gary Oldman (Sid and Nancy) as Ludwig van Beethoven, Immortal Belove...
Mozart: Requiem / McNair, Watkinson, Araiza, Lloyd; Marriner This recording of the Süssmayr completion of Mozart's beloved Requiem remains one of the most interpretively faithful and musically satisfying versions in the catalog. Sir Neville Marriner, whose contribution to the soundtrack of the film Amadeus helped launch a worldwide Mozart...	Chopin: Desire For Love A tangled web of unruly passion chronicling the stormy affair between the great piano virtuoso fredric chopin & the flamboyant feminist aurora dupin who called herself george sand. A sweeping portayal of the famed composer & his intense but hurtful relationship with george sand &...	Mozart - Requiem / Augér, Bartoli, Cole, Pape, Wiener Phil., Solti	Amadeus [Soundtrack] [Gold Cd] The Academy Award®-sweeping film Amadeus wisely pinned much of its dramatic thrust on Mozart's gloriously eternal music, and its soundtrack remains a concise yet rewarding introduction to Wolfgang's spectacular oeuvre. This newly remastered "Director's Cut" edition is a companio...	2001: A Space Odyssey - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1996 Reissue) This commemorative reissue of music from 2001: A Space Odyssey combines the Also sprach Zarathustra theme, various Johann and Richard Strauss segments, and a ballet suite by Aram Khachaturian--all of which prove how much Stanley Kubrick's film attempts to avoid the soundtrack cli...

Outstanding soundtrack!
I saw this movie for the first time at sixteen and was immediately captured by the music. Sure, I'd heard Mozart in the past...but never quite so well done! Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields brought the music to life on a level I've yet to hear matched. The choice of compositions was perfect not only for those appreciating the movie, but also anyone interested in a "Greatest Hits" album. Obviously, this is a subjective assessment. But I do believe that the Amadeus soundtrack provides an excellent starting point for someone who might be new to Mozart and interested in some highlights from his amazing career. Here we have selections ranging from chamber music up to the best symphony orchestra and imperial opera. In September of last year, I had an opportunity to hear the full Requiem performed in Amsterdam's Westerkerk and I was carried back to the first time I heard the composition in the late 1980s. The version of Requiem on this album is abbreviated, but it does represent the high points of Introitus, Dies Irae, Rex Tremendae Majestatis, Confutatis, and Lacrimosa. This is an exceptional production all around - from the instruments, to the voices, all the way to the recording itself. Every element contributes to a finished work of sophistication and grace. Highly recommended!

Beautiful, but not genuine
How could anything by Mozart that is recorded by such professionals be anything but beautiful? The selection of music is superb, magnificently performed and recorded. I was disappointed though, that some of the music is not that used in the film. For example, the "Queen of the Night" Aria was sung by June Anderson according to the film credits, but is not on the CD. The soprano on the CD is lovely but June really was special in the film. Also many of the recording in the film were in English were as they are not on the recording. Good English recordings are difficult to find. Overall, 5 stars for quality, but loses one star for the lack of "trueness" to the film.

Completely transported
A physicist tried to explain to his class the most complex theory in physics, something called the Unified Field Theory that Einstein passed away before solving, and no one has solved to this date. Wait, said the teacher, I have it! The instructor whipped out a CD of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and played the K 492 - Act 4: Ah Tutti Contenti. In the film Amadeus, this is the piece that F. Murray Abraham, in the character of Salieri, praises as the first kind statement of a husband to a wife in years, which explodes into a musical dialog of reconciliation. I was thinking about this and Russian dolls when I opened a large box that arrived last week. I was expecting a CD, I thought, so what's inside this huge box? Well, 7/8 of the box was air, literally inside bubble wrap. And then the packaging of the box set itself, and then, cut into a small hole in the box set itself, was a standard size CD jewel case. Granted, the reason for the large packaging was the inclusion of a beautiful vinyl album sized collection of pictures and information from the film and track listing. But, back to the metaphor on physics, after playing the 3 CDs in the case, I felt that no box on the planet, indeed in the whole universe, would have been big enough to contain this music. No one can say enough about the performances of St. Martin of the Fields. I was also greatly impressed by the piano performances by all the performers, especially Imogen Cooper's playing of Mozart: Piano Concerto In D Minor, K 466 - 2. Romanza. Also granted, as others have noted here, some of the Opera performances could have been more fully represented, and there are other renowned recordings, especially of the Operas, that are undeniably better. But as an almost complete collection, any Mozart lover, indeed any music lover, should not be without this box set, the accompaniment to my favorite film of all time.

Salieri... Again unjustly omitted
In the 1830 Russian poet Alexander Pushkin wrote his "Mozart and Salieri". It followed one of the (many) rumors around Mozart's early death current in Europe of then. According to it Salieri had poisoned Mozart. It is actually from that moment on that this version became a dominant one for a long lasting period. And this is the only vice of Pushkin's "Mozart and Salieri". Salieri was mostly rehabilitated when Peter Shaffer's play was written, than arrived Forman's movie. Both works by themselves are highly talented and exciting, but just as Pushkin's poem they make a great and unworthy injustice with Salieri, who definitely was not a mediocrity, to put it mildly. The Soundtrack just follows the same path. True, there was not much of Salieri music in "Amadeus", but there surely were more of it than just Axur's finale. As one reviewer has noted here, even this 3 CD's compilation is incomplete, and for me this incompleteness shows itself most boldly because of the aforementioned lack of Salieri's pieces. So it is Mozart's part of Amadeus rater than the complete movie soundtrack. Regarded as such it is undoubtedly great and awesome. One may suppose when it comes to Mozart, no interpretation can injure the music of this genius. It is unfortunately not the case, and actually there exist some performances that completely robes Mozart' music. Happily this is not applied to Neville Marriner and Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields approach. I can only point to somehow disappointing Eine kleine Nachtmusik interpretation, as also was pointed by another reviewer previously. It makes an impression of superficiality and over-lightness. Amongst many other much more impressing performances, I Musici's one from their Philips's compilation may be noted. But the rest of the Mozart's trucks are excellent indeed. Highly recommended.

Mozart for everyone!
Unlike an in depth study of his genius, this is a very well put together sampler of Mozart. Performance and sound quality are both excellent. The non Mozart selections included in the set are also very enjoyable. My only wish is that the 3 disc set were a 10 disc set. Enjoy