Claudio Abbado - Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 31 and 25, Maurerische Trauermusik & Serenade No. 9 (Expanded Edition) (1993/2004)

This recording was made in 1992-93, but remastered in 2004 with glorius sound. Abbado is to me one of the best conductors in the world, and he leads the Berlin Philharmonic in fine fashion here. The Symphony No. 25 in G minor was in many ways a turning point for Mozart, and not only because it was his first Symphony composed in the minor key. The opening movement, very recognizable by everyone who has seen the movie "Amadeus" (it was played in the beginning of the movie), shows a remarkable impassioned forward momentum, but with a background of dark pessimism. The key of G minor lends itself to that 'struggle', and almost 15 years later he very effectively uses that very same key in the famous Symphony No.40, one of the final trio of Symphonies penned in a remarkable six week period in the summer of 1788.