New York Philomusica records on its own label, New York Philomusica Records. The first American ensemble to record Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, New York Philomusica is the only group ever to record the entire Mozart Divertimento catalogue. The Divertimento recordings were originally released by VoxBox Productions in 1975 and were followed by a release of Wind Serenades of Mozart. Both titles were reissued by New York Philomusica Records in October 2002 with updated, comprehensive liner notes by Mozart scholar Robert Levin. The Masters: Master Haydn, Student Beethoven, George & Joseph | Paris, and the original recording of Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, brought the catalogue to 18, to which an additional six have been added from the live concerts recordings [see below and Program Notes for details].

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New Releases

FROM BAROQUE TO BERKELEY
BEETHOVEN, MOZART & DOHNNY LIVE
SCHUBERT OCTET LIVE
THE THREE "B'S": BEETHOVEN, BARTK & BERKELEY LIVE
NY PHILOMUSICA'S 35TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON SAMPLER

Existing Catalog

This survey is imbued with the wealth of talent that Mozart brought to our world, in his time and in ours. The music: Mozart’s voice in its fullest reach through his genius for combining his musical impulses with perfect combinations of instruments. The performers: Legends in their time, they are personal, brilliant and profound in bringing the requisite insight to interpreting these marvelously varied compositions. The scholarship: Robert D. Levin is the author of the exhaustive program booklet. It is a model of what a survey should include: incipits of the recorded works and a synoptic table current to August 2002—an invaluable resource for libraries and for musicians.

"For style and virtuosity, these are absolutely magnificent presentations, and in excellent sound too…Highest possible recommendation."
San Francisco Examiner

"One takes a special pleasure in hearing the poised, larklike flights of the two principal violinists, Isidore Cohen and Felix Galimir."
New York Times

The string works here are led by the legendary musician Felix Galimir. The first, written in Milan in 1771, was given the double title "Concerto or Divertimento" by the composer. The second on this CD is the fourth of six Tafelmusiken – "light entertainment for those at table." The last is a rare display of showcasing the winds in the presence of strings, with a flute, oboe, bassoon and four (!) horns, performed here in an ensemble the size of that available to Mozart in Salzburg when he wrote the piece. The richness and variety of the CD make for a fascinating exploration of the instrumental palette that was so rapidly expanding in Mozart’s day.

This CD opens with the brilliance of a high tessitura in the first of two pieces for ten winds, using the amazing new clarinets and English horns. This is followed by the sedate sixth Tafelmusik for six winds. The disk concludes with the first of the great marches and divertimentos for string and horns.

Featuring a "new" divertimento, reconstructed through the scholarship of Robert D. Levin, the final work on the CD, Il Re Pastore, brings an entirely original area of inquiry to the realm of recording and performance. The composer borrowed the overture and opening aria from the opera of the same name, added a march for the beginning and the end, and inserted a final movement before the last march, getting twice the mileage from a single effort utilized in an entirely different medium. The program begins with one of the most popular works Mozart was to write, is followed by the second of his Tafelmusiken and continues with the extraordinarily lovely ensemble of flutes, trumpets and tympani, in a collection of dances written for the graduation ceremony of horses from their "High School."

Isidore Cohen leads the great Divertimento No. 15, which is a display of extraordinary virtuosity and, in the Adagio, sublime beauty, both by composer and his performers on every instrument. Beethoven would make use of this work’s formal construct in the last movement of his Ninth Symphony. The CD opens with the richly-textured second of two 10-wind works and is followed by the delightful first of six Tafelmusiken for six winds.

Two Tafelmusiken of the widest contrast in key and texture begin this CD, even though both are for six winds. No. 12 starts off with a languorous Andante in 6/8, while No. 14 starts with the most formal first movement of the entire group. The string and two horns work, number three of the five, is the exemplar of "energy and lyricism, humor and expressive warmth," to quote the program annotator, Robert D. Levin.