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| Amadeus: The Complete Original Soundtrack Recording | 
 enlarge | Creators: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice, Simon Callow, Christine Ebersole, Jeffrey Jones, Charles Kay, Kenneth Mcmillan, Kenny Baker
Label: Fantasy
Category: Music
List Price: $39.98
Buy New: $24.79
You Save: $15.19 (38%)
Buy New/Used from $19.70
Avg. Customer Rating:  (41 reviews)
Sales Rank: 7689
Format: Box Set, Original Recording Reissued, Original Recording Remastered, Soundtrack
Languages: English (Original Language), German (Original Language), Italian (Original Language)
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 3
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 12.7 x 12.4 x 1.3
MPN: 4403
UPC: 025218440325
EAN: 0025218440325
ASIN: B000000XBV
Release Date: July 1, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Symphony No. 25 In G Minor, (1st Movement) | | • | Stabat Mater; Quando Corpus Morietur And Amen | | • | Bubak And Hungaricus | | • | Serenade For Winds, (3rd Movment) | | • | The Abduction From The Seraglio, (Turkish...) | | • | The Abduction From The Seraglio (Chorus Of...) | | • | Caro Mio Bene | | • | Mass In C Minor | | • | Concerto For Flute And Harp, (2nd Movement) | | • | Concerto For Two Pianos, (3rd Movement) |
Disc 2
| • | Symphony No. 29 In A, (1st Movemnet, Allegro Mod.) | | • | Piano Concerto In E Flat, (3rd Movement) | | • | The Marriage Of Figaro, Act III, Ecco La Marcia | | • | The Marriage Of Figaro, Act IV, Ah Tutti Contenti | | • | Axur, Finale | | • | Piano Concerto In D Minor, (1st Movement) | | • | Zaide; Aria, Rhue Sanft | | • | Don Giovanni, Act II, Commendatore Scene | | • | Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Serenade, (1st Movement) |
Disc 3
| • | Symphonie Concertante, (1st Movement) | | • | Masonic Funeral Music | | • | The Magic Flute, Overture | | • | The Magic Flute, Aria (No. 14), Queen Of The Night | | • | Six German Dances | | • | Introitus, (Orchestral Introduction) | | • | Dies Irae | | • | Rex Tremendae Majestatis | | • | Confutatis | | • | Lacrymosa | | • | Piano Concerto In D Minor, (2nd Movement) Romanza |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Director Milos Forman's rewarding 1984 film adaptation of playwright Peter Shaffer's Tony-winning play won no fewer than 10 Academy Awards (including Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Director); only Wolfgang himself (and his filmic counterpart, Tom Hulce) seemed to get overlooked by the Academy. This expanded three-disc set contains all of Sir Neville Marriner's crisp, accurate readings of the excerpted Mozart symphonies, concertos, serenades, and operas (including marvelous portions of The Abduction of Seraglio, Don Giovanni, and The Magic Flute) used in the film. The success of Amadeus spurred a long-overdue renaissance of interest in classical music, and one would be hard-pressed to find a richer, more concise introduction to the intoxicating music and frustrating bundle of moral contradictions that was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. --Jerry McCulley
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| Customer Reviews: Read 36 more reviews...
Outstanding soundtrack! May 31, 2008
I saw this movie for the first time at sixteen and was immediately captured by the music. Sure, I'd heard Mozart in the past...but never quite so well done! Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields brought the music to life on a level I've yet to hear matched.
The choice of compositions was perfect not only for those appreciating the movie, but also anyone interested in a "Greatest Hits" album. Obviously, this is a subjective assessment. But I do believe that the Amadeus soundtrack provides an excellent starting point for someone who might be new to Mozart and interested in some highlights from his amazing career. Here we have selections ranging from chamber music up to the best symphony orchestra and imperial opera.
In September of last year, I had an opportunity to hear the full Requiem performed in Amsterdam's Westerkerk and I was carried back to the first time I heard the composition in the late 1980s. The version of Requiem on this album is abbreviated, but it does represent the high points of Introitus, Dies Irae, Rex Tremendae Majestatis, Confutatis, and Lacrimosa.
This is an exceptional production all around - from the instruments, to the voices, all the way to the recording itself. Every element contributes to a finished work of sophistication and grace. Highly recommended!
 Beautiful, but not genuine March 13, 2008
How could anything by Mozart that is recorded by such professionals be anything but beautiful? The selection of music is superb, magnificently performed and recorded.
I was disappointed though, that some of the music is not that used in the film. For example, the "Queen of the Night" Aria was sung by June Anderson according to the film credits, but is not on the CD. The soprano on the CD is lovely but June really was special in the film. Also many of the recording in the film were in English were as they are not on the recording. Good English recordings are difficult to find.
Overall, 5 stars for quality, but loses one star for the lack of "trueness" to the film.
Completely transported March 1, 2008
A physicist tried to explain to his class the most complex theory in physics, something called the Unified Field Theory that Einstein passed away before solving, and no one has solved to this date. Wait, said the teacher, I have it! The instructor whipped out a CD of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and played the K 492 - Act 4: Ah Tutti Contenti. In the film Amadeus, this is the piece that F. Murray Abraham, in the character of Salieri, praises as the first kind statement of a husband to a wife in years, which explodes into a musical dialog of reconciliation.
I was thinking about this and Russian dolls when I opened a large box that arrived last week. I was expecting a CD, I thought, so what's inside this huge box? Well, 7/8 of the box was air, literally inside bubble wrap. And then the packaging of the box set itself, and then, cut into a small hole in the box set itself, was a standard size CD jewel case. Granted, the reason for the large packaging was the inclusion of a beautiful vinyl album sized collection of pictures and information from the film and track listing.
But, back to the metaphor on physics, after playing the 3 CDs in the case, I felt that no box on the planet, indeed in the whole universe, would have been big enough to contain this music.
No one can say enough about the performances of St. Martin of the Fields. I was also greatly impressed by the piano performances by all the performers, especially Imogen Cooper's playing of Mozart: Piano Concerto In D Minor, K 466 - 2. Romanza.
Also granted, as others have noted here, some of the Opera performances could have been more fully represented, and there are other renowned recordings, especially of the Operas, that are undeniably better.
But as an almost complete collection, any Mozart lover, indeed any music lover, should not be without this box set, the accompaniment to my favorite film of all time.
Salieri... Again unjustly omitted December 10, 2007
In the 1830 Russian poet Alexander Pushkin wrote his "Mozart and Salieri". It followed one of the (many) rumors around Mozart's early death current in Europe of then. According to it Salieri had poisoned Mozart. It is actually from that moment on that this version became a dominant one for a long lasting period. And this is the only vice of Pushkin's "Mozart and Salieri".
Salieri was mostly rehabilitated when Peter Shaffer's play was written, than arrived Forman's movie. Both works by themselves are highly talented and exciting, but just as Pushkin's poem they make a great and unworthy injustice with Salieri, who definitely was not a mediocrity, to put it mildly. The Soundtrack just follows the same path. True, there was not much of Salieri music in "Amadeus", but there surely were more of it than just Axur's finale. As one reviewer has noted here, even this 3 CD's compilation is incomplete, and for me this incompleteness shows itself most boldly because of the aforementioned lack of Salieri's pieces.
So it is Mozart's part of Amadeus rater than the complete movie soundtrack. Regarded as such it is undoubtedly great and awesome. One may suppose when it comes to Mozart, no interpretation can injure the music of this genius. It is unfortunately not the case, and actually there exist some performances that completely robes Mozart' music. Happily this is not applied to Neville Marriner and Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields approach. I can only point to somehow disappointing Eine kleine Nachtmusik interpretation, as also was pointed by another reviewer previously. It makes an impression of superficiality and over-lightness. Amongst many other much more impressing performances, I Musici's one from their Philips's compilation may be noted.
But the rest of the Mozart's trucks are excellent indeed.
Highly recommended.
Mozart for everyone! July 20, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Unlike an in depth study of his genius, this is a very well put together sampler of Mozart. Performance and sound quality are both excellent. The non Mozart selections included in the set are also very enjoyable. My only wish is that the 3 disc set were a 10 disc set. Enjoy
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