Henryk Szeryng, Aurèle Nicolet, Heinz Holliger, Sir Neville Marriner - Mozart: Violin & Wind Concertos (9CD) (2012)

For Mozart, wind instruments had their own voices, full of warmth and tenderness, as much as singers did, and his concertos are animated with an operatic sense of drama. His own experience as a violinist allowed him to write five concertos for the instrument that are full of sparky virtuosity, here conveyed with sovereign authority by Henryk Szeryng.

This collection (originally released as part of the legendary Philips Classics Mozart Edition) is full of truly authoritative performances featuring internationally acclaimed artists.

R E V I E W S:

Oboe concerto, Sinfonia concertante for winds Much interest has been shown in the history of K 297b and it is re-focused here by this 'reconstruction' described in some detail in RG's review of the LP. The CD enhances the excellence of the recorded balance with just the right exchange between the soloists and the ASM F. The same comment applies to Heinz Holliger's account of the Oboe Concerto which, if anything, exceeds in beauty his previous LP version for Philips. Those readers with very good reproducing equipment might like to be warned that noticeable lowfrequency traffic rumble can be heard in places: even so, t his recording is a 'must' in my collection.


Horn concertos
"Even against the considerable competition...which I seem to have been almost continually evaluating over the past year, this new record from Peter Damm ( stands up impressively, although for many British listeners he would not be a first choice. Not because of any lack of musical discernment, for indeed he shows a natural feeling for a Mozartian phrase and the performances throughout have an attractive easy spontaneity, but because his timbre has a slight emphasis on the lower harmonics and sounds rich somewhat in the way of aural plum pudding. There is also a modicum of vibrato, used most judiciously and especially noticeable in the Romanza of K495. Yet the fluent style, readily echoed by Marriner and his Academy (how nicely the dotted rhythms of the allegro of the first movement of K447 are managed), gives consistent pleasure and every performance flows with an easy grace.

This is live music-making throughout with no suggestion of the recording studio, except from the overall polish. There is elegance and grace here and in the Rondos a jaunty geniality that is most appealing. He makes the second (final) movement of the First Concerto in D major sound particularly winning. The recording is of Philips's best, naturally balanced and full. A most enjoyable disc then."


Flute and Harp Concerto
"An exquisite work composed when Mozart was in Paris in the late 1770s, the Concerto for flute and harp is for obvious reasons a rarity in the concert hall, but it has been well served by the gramophone, and a performance by James Galway and Marisa Robles is also reviewed in this issue (see above). Here it is played with verve and sensitivity by Irena Grafenauer and Maria Graf—young artists born in the 1950s, the former in Ljubljana and the latter in Munich—who find excellent support in the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner. The brisk tempo for the initial Allegro brings out its sparkle more than the rather deliberate approach of Galway and Robles and I also like the playing of the firstmovement cadenza composed by Reinecke. The Andantino is similarly poised yet flowing and the finale dances as it should. The recorded sound here is fresh, natural and altogether attractive, whereas for Galway and his colleagues it is rather heavy and reverberant."


Violin Concertos 5 & 6
"These are most civilized performances and a real pleasure to hear. The recording matches them in general quality, in the good balance between soloist and orchestra, and in the particularly admirable audibility of oboes and horns. RF, writing about Menuhin remarked that there wasn't enough of the oboes to relieve the constant string sound, so it looks as if the present record has a clear advantage there.

The thing I like so much about Szeryng's Mozart is that it isn't just polished Mozart playing, the sort of faceless polish we so often hear from lesser artists, but has great character. In the first movement of K219, for instance, he isn't afraid to use quite tough accents to point the start of groups of semiquavers; in the finale, his playing on the G string in the F sharp minor and D major zigeuner episodes is delightfully contrasted with the lightest of high phrases, while the several little cadenzas have a wonderful sparkle. (Cadenzas are, as usual, by Joachim.)

K271a is a highly dubious attribution and RF said that it "at no point sounds like Mozart to me". I think that too drastic; but why I don't think it by Mozart all the same is because the music doesn't ever suddenly change in mood, suddenly into a dark and deeply felt mood, so characteristic of Mozart; which is odd, since it is said to date from two years later than the authentic ones (all of which were composed in 1775), and with a composer of Mozart's astonishing development, two years means a lot. Anyway, the solo part, which includes display passages of double-stopping in tenths, must surely have been dolled up by some later composer.

Even the opening direction, allegro maestoso, is odd, for I don't see how you can possibly play this jaunty music maestoso. But why worry ? It is a delightful piece in itself and well worth playing, whoever wrote it. Enesco's cadenzas were disliked by RF when he heard the Menuhin record; I confess, they didn't worry me—but perhaps I was just enjoying Szeryng's charming performance and the most agi eeable music too much to worry.

It would be quite wrong not to mention the excellent accompaniment by Gibson and the New Philharmonia Orchestra throughout both concertos. Gibson is entirely at one with his soloist; he apparently uses a small body of strings and he, no doubt, has seen to it that the oboes and horns are well in the picture. The quality of soft tone he draws from the strings at the start of the slow movement of K219 is especially beautiful—as is, indeed, the quality of all of this orchestral introduction. An excellent record."