Maxim Emelyanychev’s affinity with Mozart is well known, especially when it comes to piano works: in 2018, the conductor and keyboardist treated us to a recording that not only displayed his virtuosity and musicianship, but also revealed his remarkably close understanding of the composer’s music.

Today, the symphonies are the focus of his first long-term project with Il Pomo d’Oro, an ensemble he has been working with as its conductor since 2013. As he points out, this project, aiming eventually to provide a complete set of the Mozart symphonies, is unlike anything he has recorded with the ensemble hitherto on period instruments.

The approach here is original: each volume will feature an early symphony by Mozart, together with one of his great mature symphonies, which will enable the listener to perceive his many facets, revealed in the course of his development. Each volume will also include a bonus work, featuring a special guest.

Inaugurating the series, Maxim Emelyanychev himself provides the hors d’oeuvre with Concerto no.23, K488, played on a fortepiano, before going on to conduct Mozart’s Symphonies nos. 1 and 41, his first and his last, as the main course of this delightful feast.