More magnificent Mozart - Albrecht Mayer’s chart-topping Mozart album gains six new tracks in special double-disc deluxe edition

With rave reviews and tremendous success in the German pop charts and classical charts to its credit, Albrecht Mayer · Mozart has already secured its place among this year’s outstanding classical albums. The star oboist has now added six new tracks to an already irresistible mix of works recorded with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and harpsichordist Vital Julian Frey. Albrecht Mayer · Mozart – Extended Edition, set for release by Deutsche Grammophon on 12 November 2021, continues Mayer’s project to enhance the oboe’s repertoire with freshly minted Mozart arrangements.

“Mozart wrote the most beautiful tunes, many of them for soprano or violin,” observes Mayer. “I thought now was the time to have these arranged for oboe … At a stressful moment, on a stressful day, under the influence of any hardship, this music can be extremely comforting.”

Deutsche Grammophon’s deluxe edition, presented as a 2-CD digipack, offers transcriptions of three stunning arias from Die Zauberflöte – Tamino’s “Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön” and Pamina’s “Ach, ich fühl’s, es ist verschwunden”, and the Queen of the Night’s “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen” – as well as the showstopping “Martern aller Arten” from Die Entführung aus dem Serail and “Lungi le cure ingrate” from Davidde penitente, a cantata Mozart wrote in 1785 to raise money for a pension fund for musicians’ widows and orphans. All five have been arranged for oboe/oboe d’amore and piano by Matthias Spindler, who also created the version for oboe, violin, cello and orchestra of the Adagio from the Gran Partita K361 which rounds off the new edition. Mayer is accompanied by pianist Fabian Müller in the arias, and by violinist Daniel Sepec, cellist Nuala McKenna and The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie in the Adagio.

Following the original album’s appearance in April this year, critics were unanimous in their praise for Mayer’s eloquent artistry in a specially comissioned completion of the fragmentary Oboe Concerto in F major as well as a selection of works for solo voice, chorus, flute or violin newly arranged for oboe, oboe d’amore or English horn. The Wiener Zeitung called the album “a feast for the ears”, while Pizzicato hailed Mayer’s “phenomenal technique, his warm, golden and always pure tone, his virtuosity, his play of colours and nuances” and Gramophone concluded “there is much here to beguile”. These observations were reflected by the album’s rise to No.7 in the German pop charts within a week of its release and two-month hold on the top spot in the German classical charts.