Mostly Mozart

“Mozart is the composer who provides the most sophisticated human emotional experience……. When we started performing classical repertoire we tried really hard to seek out the bones of the music and then added the colours. Every member of the Academy wanted to achieve clarity and to be an important part of the structure.”

By recording all Mozart’s symphonies in the 1970s, then the piano concertos with Alfred Brendel (completed in 1984), Marriner and the Academy established an international reputation for the clarity and excellence of their performance of the greatest music of the 18th century.

This area of their work led to the choice of this team to record all the music for the 1984 feature film ‘Amadeus’. Millions of film-goers all over the world, not necessarily with a taste for Mozart, now saw the names and heard the compelling performances of conductor and orchestra which were already celebrated in the classical music arena. Worldwide, the disc of ‘Amadeus’ music, consisting of dozens of short extracts from the master’s work, achieved sales figures of 6.5 million.

One of the most remarkable awards ever gained by the Academy is connected with this project; for a gold disc, representing sales of 100,000 plus, was awarded for sales of the ‘Amadeus’ record in Australia alone.