Classical Opera and The Mozartists are delighted to announce the launch of ‘RE-LIVE’, a new initiative undertaken in collaboration with the recently established music platform Exit Live.

Each month between now and the end of the year they will release an archive recording of one of their past concerts for paid download. Conductor & Artistic Director Ian Page writes:

“To compensate for our current inability to give live performances, we are collaborating with Exit Live to make archive recordings of fondly remembered concerts available for moderately priced download. These monthly releases will enable us to maintain our close connection with our followers, and also to reach wider audiences across the globe, while also providing our wonderful artists with a thread of much-needed income during these difficult times. The majority of our total revenue from each recording will be shared directly and equally among every performer who took part in the concert.”

The first release, which is already available for download from the Exit Live website, is a recording of a memorable concert given at London’s Wigmore Hall in May 2016, when the internationally renowned Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg joined Ian Page and his acclaimed period-instrument ensemble in a programme of rare and familiar masterpieces from the second half of the eighteenth century.

Hallenberg sings a fascinating selection of arias by Gluck - including his celebrated depiction of paradise in ”Che puro ciel” from Orfeo ed Euridice - and Mozart - culminating in Sesto’s magnificent ”Deh, per questo istante solo” from his valedictory La clemenza di Tito. The programme also features two superb but rarely performed minor-key symphonies which hail from Hallenberg and Page’s homelands - the intense and fiery C minor symphony by ’the Swedish Mozart’ and a G minor symphony by Mozart’s friend and mentor, ’the London Bach’.

PROGRAMME (total running time 92’16)

1 GLUCK: “Resta o cara” from Il trionfo di Clelia
2 GLUCK: “O del mio dolce ardor” from Paride ed Elena
KRAUS: Symphony in C minor
3 1. Larghetto - Allegro
4 2. Andante
5 3. Allegro assai
6 GLUCK: “Che puro ciel” from Orfeo ed Euridice
7 GLUCK: “Misera dove son... Ah, non son io” from Ezio
8 MOZART: “Che scompiglio, che flagello” from La finta semplice
9 MOZART: “Dunque sperar poss’io... Il tenero momento” from Lucio Silla
J. C. BACH: Symphony in G minor, Op.6, no.6
10 1. Allegro
11 2. Andante più tosto Adagio
12 3. Allegro molto
13 MOZART: “Se l’augellin sen fugge” from La finta giardiniera
14 MOZART: “Deh, per questo istante solo” from La clemenza di Tito
15 ENCORE - GIORDANI: “Caro mio ben”

Ann Hallenberg (mezzo-soprano)
The Mozartists (leader, Matthew Truscott)
Ian Page (conductor)

Future releases in The Mozartists’ ‘RE-LIVE’ series will be announced in due course, and are likely to include complete operas, UK premières and further Wigmore Hall concerts.