Karl Böhm - Mozart: La clemanza di Tito (2005) CD-Rip

If you're only going to hear one recording of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, it should be this 1979 recording by Karl Böhm leading the Staatskapelle Dresden with an all-star, mostly German cast. Böhm's unique combination of the dramatic with the lyric and the human with the sublime made him the leading Austrian Mozart conductor of the postwar period -- pace von Karajan -- and his recordings of the great operas have become the standard by which all subsequent recordings are measured. With the heroic Peter Schreier in the title role, along with steely toned Julia Varady, the sweet-toned Edith Mathis, the stentorian-toned Theo Adam, and the sensuously toned Teresa Berganza, Böhm has a superlative cast and with the marvelously musical Staatskapelle Dresden, he has a sumptuous orchestra. And Deutsche Grammophon's late stereo sound remains unrivaled for clarity, lucidity, and immediacy. While La Clemenza di Tito may not be Mozart's greatest Italian opera -- how could it be with competition from Le nozze, Così, and, of course, Don Giovanni? -- in Böhm's performance, it nevertheless sounds like great Mozart.