Marianne Thorsen, TrondheimSolistene - Mozart Violin Concertos (2006) [SACD]

Norwegian violinist Marianne Thorsen (active mostly in England) & the Trondheim Solistene state here that they “wish to present a fresh version of the most elegant violin concertos in the history of music.” This being an audiophile release, they view the challenge in mostly technical terms. After struggling through a rather mysterious metaphor (“To us, Mozart is as solid as rock, as soft as snow, & as clear as ice”), one learns that “this recording embraces the listener in a sonic world that invites him or her to participate actively in the experience.” The recording of the last 3 Mozart violin concertos is quite unusual, beginning with the fact that the package includes 2 separate discs containing the same music — 1 a conventional CD & 1 a SACD.
The conventional disc was auditioned for this review, & even this represents a virtuoso feat of engineering. The sonic ambiance of the Norwegian church recording location is, it must be said, a bit too far on the live side; Mozart’s violin concertos weren’t performed in churches, but in well-upholstered rooms. But the combination of transparency & immediacy is impressive; microphones capture a strong sense of Thorsen’s physical presence, but her interactions with the small orchestra do not suffer. The strongest feature of the recording is not its raw engineering muscle but the interpretation that is constructed to match the sound environment: Thorsen devises an unusual reading that downplays the sometimes-overdone lyricism of these youthful, highly melodic works & broadens them out somewhat, allowing for the delineation of interior lines in the orchestra — they often seem to come out of nowhere in a delightfully lively way. One might be skeptical that a performance describable as “dry” would work with the Mozart concertos, but most of the time it does: performance styles are not absolutely right or wrong but work (or don’t) in specific situations. Only the final Turkish-style movement of the Violin Concerto No. 5 seems unnaturally tamped down. This is indeed a fresh version of Mozart’s violin concertos, & a fine gift for someone who has just acquired SACD equipment.