MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Mozart: Don Giovanni, K527 (Complete opera)

"Even those who have never been to Drottningholm and experienced Arnold Ostman's Mozart in the flesh will know exactly what it is that makes his recorded performances live. It is not only his subtle use of period instruments (or replicas of them); it is not only the conviction and consistency with which he carries through the musical dramaturgy of whichever version is in hand; it is, above all, the accuracy with which he takes Mozart's pulse: the nervous acuity of every second of recitative, and the almost unfailing and often uncanny sensitivity to the very nuance of tempo which will best articulate the emotional breathing of any aria. Della Jones realizes to a nicety Ostman's perception of the Prague Donna Elvira: more of a deft comic actor-singer than a femme fatale. What is more, the particular pungency of the mezzo's high notes add a telling shadow of wistfulness to her ''Ah chi mi dice mai'', helped by little inflexions of judiciously placed ornament." (Gramophone)