8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent and unique., September 30, 2006
This review is from: Complete Wind Concerti (Audio CD)
This is one of the best collections of Mozart's wind concerti played on original instruments. Thomas Crawford's Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy plays with beauty, gorgeous tone, transparency, grace, enthusiasm and apparent love of the music. The soloists are without exception excellent, and play either on original instruments or (more commonly) on instruments reconstructed from period models. Sandra Miller does a wonderful job on the flute concerti (playing with a sweetness and love unusual in performances of these pieces), as does Marc Schachman on the oboe concerti and Dennis Godburn on the bassoon.
But special mention has to go to the two unique concerti groups in this release: the clarinet concerto and the horn concerti. For the clarinet concerto, soloist Eric Hoeprich reconstructed Mozart's original performance version for the bassett clarinet, and went so far as to build his own bassett clarinet based on an engraving of the one played by the concerto's original soloist, Anton Stadler. Not only does Hoeprich's instrument sound gorgeous and mellow, it permits him to play several passages an octave lower than we are used to hearing. The result is not only one of the most beautiful performances of this gorgeous piece I've heard, it is also one which, after the initial shock of hearing something unfamiliar, just sounds completely "right." Listening to other performances based on Mozarts' revision of the piece for standard clarinet, I am now aware of how Mozart had to split octaves on certain phrases and how much better it sounds in the original, "un-split" version. For this reason alone one should buy this set.
The horn concerti were also gone over, revised based on Mozart's autograph versions where available, and in some cases reconstructed and rescored by Mozart specialist Robert Levin. Levin has played improvisations on Mozart's piano pieces and he seems to have absorbed the composer's musical language and spirit to an astonishing degree. The pieces sound new and fresh, in many cases more "Mozartian" than the versions we've come to know (several of which involved revisions by Mozart's pupil Sussmayer -- I've got to say Levin seems to know Mozart better than Sussmayer did!). The performances by RJ Kelly and the orchestra are all first-rate. In addition, the disc includes a separate performance of the Rondo-Allegro to the Concerto K412 which includes Mozart's written running commentary of insults to the original soloist Joseph Luetgeb -- fun to listen to once at least.
I'm sorry to see this set is not as easily available as it once was. It really should be at the top of your list for all of these concerti. Buy it if you can find it.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
