Concentus Musicus Wien, Nikolaus Harnoncourt – Handel, Mozart, Mosel: Timotheus oder die Gewalt der Musik (2013) CD-Rip

This cd contains a rendition of a live concert given november of last year (2012) to commemorate the 200 year anniversary of the "Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde" in Vienna.
Mr. Harnoncourt conducts, according to the textbook and some online research that I did, a massively expanded Concentus Musicus Wien, the Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna and soloists Roberta Invernizzi, Werner Gura and Gerald Finley.
According to the research that I did, the piece was originally composed by Friedrich Handel on a text by John Dryden but later translated into German by Carl Wilhelm Ramler in 1766. Mozart reworked this translation to a large extend for a series of concerts in july of 1790. In fact, the revision by Mozart of thsi work is to such a degree that the work carries its own number in Kochel`s Verzeichnis der Werke W.A. Mozarts.

The concerts in Vienna`s Musikverein in November 2012 were done as a celebration of this institute`s 200th birthday and tried to recapture or duplicate the Musikverein`s first concert ever November 29th, 1812. That particular concert was conducted by Ignaz Franz von Mosel who, according to the documentation, further revised the work to include a large bass drum.

The power of this music is simply stunning. To my ears, the "Handel" part is much larher than the "Mozart" part, but, of course, I have not researched the autograpph scores in the Musikverein`s library the way that Mr. Harnoncourt did for this performance so, how could I really know what Mozart changed in Handels`s score for his performances? Moreover, I do not know the original Handel piece called "Alexander`s feast or the power of music" well enough to have any opinion on the matter.
The historic angle is interesting, of course. However, much more imortant is the quality of the performance which leaves the hearer slack jawed. This wonderfull, powerfull music that rocks the very soul!
The orchestra plays as precise and inspired as ever. The choir is extremely versatile and flexible, especially when one knows that it consists of 100 singers..
The soloists are great and seem genuienly inspired by the musical direction.
The secon disc starts with a litle explanation by Mr. Harnoncourt and a call for the audience to sing along with the first chorus. There is some practising and some witty remarks by the Conductor which evokes lots of laughter in the audince. That audience consisted of everyone of importance in Vienna`s and Austria`s music life among whom Mr. Thomas Hampson! and several other professional singers..
Unfortunately, Sony has not provided a translation into English so that one must speak German to understand it. The booklet with this disc contains very little information anyway, I do wish that some more would have been provided. This is not difficult, either, I know for a fact that the progran for the concert in Vienna held a wealth of info that could easily have been copied for this release. In fact, the audience was given the printed score on the chorus which they were asked to sing along with!
All in all a wonderfull disc of great music. A must for those who like Mr. Harnoncourt`s work and a must for Handel and Mozart lovers.
One tip: Played on a good system, the bass drums are especially loud and may wake up the kids if played late at night.