The Complete Mozart Edition

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The Complete Mozart Edition
Studio album by various artists
Released	1990, 1991, 2000, 2006 (re-issue)
Genre	Classical
Label	Philips Classics Records

The Complete Mozart Edition is a 180-CD collection released in 1990–91 featuring all works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (known at the set's publication) assembled by Philips Classics Records to commemorate the bicentenary of the death of Mozart (December 5, 1791). It has been re-released in 2000 in a modified version as the Complete Compact Mozart Edition.

Overview

The Complete Mozart Edition comprises 180

Each volume in the series is accompanied by a deluxe booklet with detailed information about the works, with many illustrations. Indicating the significance of this particular series, the words of the accompanying Compactotheque state, "...After the complete Shakespeare, the complete Goethe, or the complete Molière in book form, here is the Complete Mozart on discs."

A modified version of The Complete Mozart Edition, the Complete Compact Mozart Edition, was released in 2000. It consists of 17 individual boxed sets. This version also contains stripped-down versions of the booklets that accompanied the original series.

The Complete Mozart Edition and The Complete Compact Mozart Edition are both accompanied by a 200-page booklet which presents a condensed biography of Mozart with many photographs, describes in detail all boxes content and contains a complete index of all the musical works following the Köchel catalogue.

This set is not to be confused with the similar complete edition (on 170 CDs) by Brilliant Classics entitled Complete Works.

In addition, a boxed set entitled The Best of the Complete Mozart Edition was also released on November 14, 1995. This set contains 25 compact discs and represents a selection of the 1990–91 or 2000 sets.^[1]

1979 Mozart Edition

Philips had previously released a Mozart Edition, a series of 16 vinyl box sets issued in 1979. They purposely did not use the title of Complete Mozart Edition as it obviously was not a complete catalogue of his works. The series consisted of his main works only, although all of his operas, orchestral and chamber works were included. Due to the fact that it was released earlier than the Complete Edition, Philips did not have that many recordings at their disposal, and quite a few of the recordings in the Complete Edition were recorded specifically for it.^[2]

Cover art

The artwork for all 45 boxes was designed by Pet Halmen [de], directed by Estelle Kercher and photographed by Christine Woidich.^[3] The designs focus on minimalism, with small objects that represent the music included in each volume (i.e. trumpet for wind music, piano for piano concertos, violin for violin sonatas and horn for wind concertos).^[4] Miniature figurines and dolls were also incorporated, which were all brought together in the artwork of the final volume.^[5]

The artwork for the Complete Compact Mozart Edition consisted of photographs depicting different architectural designs and details, taken by Matthew Weinreb throughout Austria, Germany, Italy and Czechoslovakia.^[6] The 180 disc box set containing all 17 volumes of the 2000 Edition features an upwards panoramic view of the interior of the Royal Opera House.^[7]

They also incorporated a stylized version of Mozart's signature (surname only) on both the 1991 and 2000 Editions.

Similarities and differences from Mozart 225

In 2016, Decca and Deutsche Grammophon partnered with the International Mozarteum Foundation and issued a new edition of Mozart's complete works on disc, Mozart 225, to commemorate the 225th anniversary of his death. The edition was once the largest CD box set dedicated to one person in the world, until it was overtaken by Deutsche Grammophon's Karajan Edition. Consisting of 200 discs, it contains all of Mozart's known works, including those of fragmentary, doubtful or spurious status. It also contains two hard-back books: a biography written by the Canadian Mozart scholar Cliff Eisen and a guide to the music.^[8]

There are many similarities and differences between the 1991 Philips Edition and Mozart 225. Decca and Deutsche Grammophon chose to use recordings from their own catalogue instead of from the old Philips one (which at that time had become joint with the Universal Music Group). For example, they used Trevor Pinnock's cycle of Mozart's symphonies with The English Concert, originally on the Archiv Produktion label. They did use a majority of the same recordings for the earlier operas (Leopold Hager's Deutsche Grammophon recordings), as well as many of his sacred works included in the 1991 Edition (with Herbert Kegel).^[9]

The 2016 Edition also features many works that were not included in the 1991 Edition, such as his doubtful, spurious or incomplete works. One of the most significant discoveries was in the preparation for Mozart 225 when the German composer and musicologist Timo Jouko Herrmann discovered the cantata Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia, K. 477a, which until its discovery was considered lost. The authorship is attributed to both Mozart and the Italian composer Antonio Salieri, the man notoriously known as Mozart's "rival".^[10] It received its first recording in 2016 by Claire Elizabeth Craig (soprano) and Florian Birsak (fortepiano), which was included in Mozart 225.

The original The Complete Mozart series

The Complete Compact Mozart Edition

References