Mozart: Theatre and Ballet Music

The Thamos music is very remarkable. The choruses hint at the grandeur and nobility of Die Zauberflöte, and carry the same message about the triumph of light over darkness, although the first of them arguably seems overlong, out of its context, for persistent C major jubilation. The interludes are the most dramatic, fiery, intense music Mozart had written to date: full of sharp accents, chromaticisms, colourful orchestration, restless inner parts, strongly contrasted ideas (some of them specifically intended to portray the characters of the drama). There are things here that foreshadow the tone of Idomeneo and even Don Giovanni. -- Gramophone [2/1976, reviewing the original LP release of Thamos]