Sabine Devieilhe (soprano)Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
Erato · 2564601625 · 72 minutes
Mozart wrote some of his most dazzling concert arias for the Weber sisters — Aloysia, Constanze, and Josepha — women he knew intimately and whose voices he understood at a cellular level, and that backstory gives this whole programme a thrilling sense of personal stakes. Sabine Devieilhe handles the technical fireworks with what feels like pure ease, but there’s real emotional intelligence underneath the glitter, especially in the slower, more searching pieces. Pichon and Pygmalion frame everything with chamber-music intimacy, keeping the accompaniments alive and conversational rather than merely supportive.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 20th November 2015
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2015
- Gramophone Awards — 2016 — Winner – Recital
“the concert-aria and operatic readings themselves are gems, each one thrown off with a splendid combination of technical brilliance, musicianly assurance and tonal sweetness, and impeccably…”
— BBC Music Magazine, February 2016
Andrew Staples (Idomeneo), Magdalena Kožená (Idamante), Sabine Devieilhe (Ilia), Elsa Dreisig (Elettra), Linard Vrielink (Arbace), Allan Clayton (High Priest of Neptune), Tareq Nazmi (Voice of the Oracle)Symphonieorchester und Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Sir Simon Rattle
BR Klassik · 900215 · 2 hours 59 minutes
Mozart wrote Idomeneo at just 24, and the opera crackles with an ambition that still feels almost reckless — storm scenes, oracle pronouncements, and arias of aching tenderness all tumbling over each other in the best possible way. Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony lean right into that restless energy, and you can hear the Mannheim-school drama in every surge of the strings. With Sabine Devieilhe’s luminous Ilia and Magdalena Kožená bringing real weight to Idamante, the cast gives the opera the emotional depth it demands without ever tipping into operatic posturing.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — Awards Issue 2025 — Editor’s Choice
- International Classical Music Awards — 2026 — Nominated – Opera
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2025
“The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Simon Rattle’s energetic and sensitive direction mirror the Mannheimers’ dynamism and virtuosity…[Staples] brings fine diction and expressivity…”
— BBC Music Magazine, December 2025,4 out of 5 stars
René Pape (Sarastro), Erika Miklósa (Königin der Nacht), Dorothea Röschmann (Pamina), Christoph Strehl (Tamino), Hanno Müller-Brachmann (Papageno), Julia Kleiter (Papagena), Georg Zeppenfeld (Sprecher), Kurt Azesberger (Monostatos), Caroline Stein (Erste Dame), Heidi Zehnder (Zweite Dame), Anne-Carolyn…
Deutsche Grammophon · 4775789 · 2 hours 28 minutes
Die Zauberflöte lives in this strange, beautiful space between fairy tale and Masonic ceremony, and getting that balance right is genuinely tricky — too solemn and Papageno’s scenes feel like interruptions, too light and Sarastro loses his gravity. René Pape anchors everything with a bass of almost unfair richness, grounding the Temple scenes without ever tipping into pomposity. Erika Miklósa’s Queen of the Night is ice-cold and thrilling, and Dorothea Röschmann brings a warmth to Pamina that makes her suffering feel genuinely moving rather than just decorative.
Awards:
- Gramophone Awards — 2006 — Finalist
- BBC Music Magazine — June 2006 — Disc of the month
- Record Review — December 2006 — Critics Disc of the Year
- Gramophone Magazine — June 2006 — Editor’s Choice
“This is certainly the most desirable version using modern instruments to appear since Solti’s second recording in 1990. That said, its characteristics are rather nearer William Christie’s 1995…”
— Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010
Daniel Behle (Tamino), Marlis Petersen (Pamina), Daniel Schmutzhard (Papageno), Sunhae Im (Papagena), Anna-Kristiina Kaappola (Königin der Nacht), Marcos Fink (Sarastro), Kurt Azesberger (Monostatos)Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs
Harmonia Mundi · HMC902068/70 · 2 hours 46 minutes
René Jacobs treats Die Zauberflöte not as a grand opera to be staged but as something more intimate — a play that unfolds in your ears, full of tiny theatrical decisions you’d miss in a theatre. The period instruments of Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin give the score a crackling transparency, so Mozart’s comic timing and his genuinely strange harmonic world both land with equal force. Marlis Petersen’s Pamina is heartbreaking without a gram of sentimentality, and the whole cast sounds like they’re actually listening to each other.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 13th September 2010
- Sunday Times — 2010 — Albums of the Year
- Gramophone Awards — 2011 — Finalist – Opera
- BBC Music Magazine — November 2010 — Opera Choice
“…this is a total experience, perfectly tailored for private listening. René Jacobs thinks of it as a Hörspiel: it’s a play to be heard – I don’t know a recorded Zauberflöte more thrillingly…”
— BBC Music Magazine, November 2010,5 out of 5 stars
Ana Maria Labin (soprano), Helen Sherman (mezzo), Ben Johnson (tenor), Anna Devin (soprano), Rebecca Bottone (soprano), Robert Murray (tenor), Martene Grimson (soprano), Eleanor Dennis (soprano)The Mozartists, Ian Page
Signum · SIGCD534 · 2 hours 24 minutes
The eight-year-old Mozart who arrived in London in 1764 was already compositionally unstoppable, and Ian Page leans right into that astonishing precocity — the music here crackles with an energy that feels almost improbable for someone who hadn’t yet hit double digits. Page marshals eight soloists with real confidence, letting voices like Rebecca Bottone and Ben Johnson illuminate just how idiomatically vocal Mozart’s writing was, even at this absurdly early stage. At two and a half hours, it’s a generous immersion into a chapter of musical history that doesn’t get nearly enough attention.
Awards:
- Presto Editor’s Choice — May 2018
- Gramophone Magazine — July 2018 — Recording of the Month
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2018
“Bold yet highly sensitive, Page and his musicians show what makes this musicians show what makes this music great. Page draws on a deep bench of vocal talent; of his eight soloists, Rebecca…”
— BBC Music Magazine, August 2018,4 out of 5 stars
Simon Keenlyside (Count), Véronique Gens (Countess), Patrizia Ciofi (Susanna), Lorenzo Regazzo (Figaro), Angelika Kirchschlager (Cherubino), Marie McLaughlin (Marcellina)Collegium Vocale Gent, Concerto Köln, René Jacobs
Harmonia Mundi · HMC901818/20 · 2 hours 51 minutes
What Jacobs does with the orchestral texture here is genuinely startling — rather than letting the strings dominate, he draws out inner voices and woodwind detail that you’ve probably never noticed in other recordings, making familiar moments feel freshly written. Keenlyside’s Count has real psychological weight, and Kirchschlager’s Cherubino fizzes with the kind of restless energy that makes the character’s adolescent confusion feel completely alive rather than merely charming. Le nozze di Figaro rewards this level of attention to its architecture, and this performance delivers it in abundance.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — May 2004 — Editor’s Choice
- Gramophone Awards — 2004 — Recording of the Year
- Gramophone Awards — 2004 — Winner – Opera
- Grammy Awards — 47th Awards (2004) — Best Opera Recording
“René Jacobs always brings new ideas to the operas he conducts, and even to a work as familiar as Figaro he adds something of his own. First of all he offers an orchestral balance quite unlike…”
— Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010
Barry Banks (Tamino), Rebecca Evans (Pamina), Elizabeth Vidal (Queen of the Night), Simon Keenlyside (Papageno), John Tomlinson (Sarastro), Lesley Garrett (Papagena), John Graham-Hall (Monostatos)Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras
Chandos · CHAN3121(2) · 2 hours 16 minutes
Few operas reward the shift to English quite like The Magic Flute, where Mozart’s philosophical fairy-tale hinges on words landing with clarity and warmth — and Mackerras understands that instinctively. The LPO plays with a buoyancy that feels almost conversational, like the orchestra itself is in on the joke one moment and genuinely moved the next. With Keenlyside’s irresistible Papageno, Tomlinson’s authoritative Sarastro, and Evans bringing real tenderness to Pamina, this cast makes you feel the opera’s emotional range in a way that sneaks past your defenses.
Awards:
- BBC Music Magazine — June 2005 — Disc of the month
- Gramophone Magazine — June 2005 — Editor’s Choice
“Of all repertoire operas, none gains more than The Magic Flute from performance in the language of the audience. Musically, the performance is hard to fault. Articulation is light and buoyant,…”
— BBC Music Magazine, June 2005,5 out of 5 stars
Chiara Skerath (soprano), Soraya Mafi (soprano), Klara Ek (soprano), Stuart Jackson (tenor), Krystian Adam (tenor), Robert Murray (tenor)The Mozartists, Ian Page
Signum · SIGCD499 · 1 hour 47 minutes
Il sogno di Scipione is one of those early Mozart works that gets dismissed as a graduation exercise, but Ian Page and The Mozartists make a compelling case that the eighteen-year-old Mozart was already thinking dramatically, not just technically. The long accompanied recitative depicting Scipio’s awakening is genuinely gripping here, with Page drawing out the musical-dramatic spark that critics tend to overlook when they file this piece under “juvenilia.” With a cast that includes Chiara Skerath, Soraya Mafi, and Stuart Jackson all in strong form, this recording earned its Gramophone Awards shortlist and then some.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — October 2017 — Editor’s Choice
- BBC Music Magazine — December 2017 — Opera Choice
- Opera — December 2017 — Recording of the Month
- Gramophone Awards — 2018 — Shortlisted – Opera
“All the da capo arias offer moments of genuine Mozartian musico-dramatic spark – of which later there’s an abundance in the long accompanied recitative depicting Scipio’s awakening…This is a…”
— BBC Music Magazine, December 2017,4 out of 5 stars
