American Record Guide 127

MOZART: Clarinet Concerto; Piano Quintet

Dmitri Ashkenazy, cl; Franziska van Ooyen, ob;Otis Klober, bn; Martin Roos, hn; Czech Philhar-monic/ Vladimir Ashkenazy, p

Pan 10220—53 minutes

Mozart didn’t always have the best relation-ship with his father, but if this release is anyindication, fathers and sons can still bond overmusic. Here, the famous Russian-born pianistand conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy and clar-inetist Dmitri Ashkenazy offer a pairing of theClarinet Concerto with the Piano Quintet. Thespan between the two recordings is a littleunusual—the concerto was recorded in March2002 with the Czech Philharmonic, whichVladimir Ashkenazy led at the time, and theQuintet was recorded in September 2008 inSwitzerland with Swiss oboist Franziska vanOoyen, German bassoonist Otis Klober, andSwiss horn player Martin Roos.

Known for his emotionally invested rendi-tions of the 19th and 20th Century repertoire,Vladimir prefers his Mozart thoroughly classi-cal; and in the concerto, his orchestra sparkleswith clarity and balance without losing energyor intensity. Dmitri follows in the footsteps ofAnton Stadler, the original soloist, playing withGerman equipment on a basset clarinet, andhis approach is one of collaboration ratherthan showmanship. His sound blends ratherthan penetrates; and while he takes libertieswith articulation, ornamentation, vibrato, andcadenza opportunities, most of his gesturesare tempered and straightforward. SomeAmerican clarinet ears may find his resistantset-up a bit disagreeable, as it produces pecu-liar timbres and a hard tonguing style.

The quintet is especially difficult to evalu-ate. No matter how well written a wind piecemay be, the vastly different timbres of wood-wind instruments leave no room for amateuror mediocre playing. Vladimir brings the righttouch to Mozart’s virtuosic yet elegant key-board part, phrasing with wonderful subtlety;but the wind ensemble has difficulty matchinghim and even themselves. Klober and Roos arethe strongest members of the group, layingdown their lines with professionalism; butDmitri and Van Ooyen have more trouble. Theformer has a timbre that sometimes blendsand sometimes does not; and the latter has thetone, intonation, and sense of balance of theaverage conservatory student oboist. Theresult is consistently disappointing. There arebetter recordings of both works out there.

HANUDEL

MOZART: Flute QuartetsWolfgang Schulz; Veronika Schulz, v; Ilse Wincor, va; Franz Bartolomey, vc

Camerata 15091—87 minutes

These are arrangements by Franz AntonHoffmeister from an oboe quartet and variouspiano sonatas by Mozart. Such arrangementswere a common practice for most of the histo-ry of Western music up to the invention ofrecording. Musicians (as well as non-musi-cians) became familiar with music that way—particularly works that were not written fortheir own instruments. While not as exciting asarrangements of Mozart’s operas for windchamber ensembles, these flute quartets stillpresent listeners with an opportunity to hearpieces in appealing instrumental settings.

These musicians have a rather rigid ortho-doxy not uncommon in the performance ofMozart’s works. Everything is perfectly in line.Wolfgang Schulz’s tone is bright but con-tained, and while it is not dark or heavy, it isrich enough to blend suitably with the strings.The listener will certainly appreciate the deli-cacy of the art that these musicians have craft-ed into these performances.

SCHWARTZ

MOZART: Horn Duos; Horn Quintet; HornConcerto; Lungi da Te; A Musical Joke

Teunis van der Zwart, hn; Claron McFadden, s;Orchestra of the 18th Century/ Frans Brüggen

Glossa 921110—74 minutes

Teunis van der Zwart is principal horn with theOrchestra of the 18th Century. His notes areabout Joseph Leutgeb, whose friendship withMozart resulted in all of these works and more,and who is the subject of mocking notesMozart wrote on his manuscripts. Given thevagaries and sometimes comical sound of thenatural horn, where pitches outside the over-tone series are obtained with the hand in thebell, it is small wonder Mozart felt free to pokefun at its leading proponent.

Although Mozart never specified the instru-ments he had in mind for the K 487 Duos thatopen this program, their character leads hornplayers to claim them. Played on valvelessinstruments, they are tests of skill in both highand low registers. Zwart and fellow horn-sec-tion member Erwin Wieringa give eight (of 12)of the little pieces plenty of life and shape whilemanaging to play beautifully in tune.

In the Horn Quintet, Zwart and some of hisOrchestra of the 18th Century friends are play-ing in an intimate but not dry room, and we aresitting fairly close to them. It is a wonderfulacoustic, better than in a recent account bynatural-horn artist Wilhelm Bruns and theQuadriga Quartet. Although I enjoyed that

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recording very much, I can now tell that it wasrecorded in a big, reverberant hall (Jan/Feb2010).

Lovely playing is heard in the Musical Joke(K 522), and so the comedy is very subtle. Evenat the most obvious of crude moments, theplaying is beautiful. It’s been a while since I’veheard this piece, but I thought of it recentlywhile listening to horn music by Wolfgang’sfather Leopold (Jan/Feb 2010). Some of it wasso bad that I wondered it might have inspiredthe Musical Joke—the first piece Wolfgangcomposed after his father died.

Conductor Frans Brüggen leads arestrained reading of Horn Concerto 3, the onewith clarinets; and while I enjoy recordingswhere they are prominent, I do appreciate thisone’s balanced approach. Zwart puts his ownstamp on this account, with unusual orna-ments and original cadenzas.

The piece that won most of my attention isthe K 87 aria ‘Lungi da te, mio Bene’, fromMitridate—one of those works that makes onewonder how Mozart could have composedsomething so deep at age 14. A fine reading byhorn player William Barnewitz and sopranoEglise Gutierrez (March/April 2008: 232) con-trasts vividly with the present one by Zwart andsoprano Claron McFadden. Barnewitz playsvalved horn and has a big orchestral tone;Zwart plays natural horn and has its timbres.Gutierrez has a big but beautifully controlledvoice; McFadden has a rather small and clearvoice, and she sings in early-music style withlittle vibrato. And of course, Barnewitz isaccompanied by piano, Zwart by orchestra. Amagical moment takes place twice in Zwart’saccount—soprano McFadden drops seamlesslyfrom a high note to an almost imperceptiblelow one while the high pitch is continued by arecorder or oboe. In Barnewitz’s, and in othersI have heard, that moment sounds quite differ-ent and not at all magical.

KILPATRICK

MOZART: RequiemJulia Kleiter, Gerhild Romberger, Daniel Sans,

Klaus Mertens; Mainz Bach Choir;

Munich L’arpa Festante/ Ralf Otto

NCA 60159—50 minutes

Since Mozart left the Requiem incomplete, thepoor conductor who decides to take on thework has to sift through the merits of severalperforming editions. The three main ones thesedays are Maunder, Robbins Landon, and Levin.Others will stick to Süssmayr’s 18th Centurycompletion because, despite its flaws, it is thework of a composer who actually worked withMozart. There can be little doubt that the mod-ern editions “improve” the work, but one mustdecide how much we should defile the corpse. I

recently ran into some parallel fifths in Bach;should I correct them?

Anyway, we have the Levin completion,which changes lots of details in instrumenta-tion that the casual listener will hardly notice.The most obvious differences are the additionof the Amen fugue at the end of the ‘Lacrimosa’and some rewriting of the Sanctus, Hosanna,and Agnus Dei.

The performance, with period instruments,is quite a good one. The chorus sings with greatprecision and clear articulation of Mozart’sactive lines; I particularly like their soft singingin the ‘Lacrimosa’. The soloists, all very good,sing very musically and don’t sound likerefugees from the opera stage, each trying toout-sing the other. The orchestra plays veryexpressively, though you have to be receptiveto wiry string sound and vibratoless playing.

This is, I think, the finest period instrumentperformance of the Requiem to come my way—certainly preferable to the Levin versions doneby Pearlman and Runnicles. The sound is nice-ly balanced, and the disc is a hybrid, with bothCD and SACD tracks.

ALTHOUSE

MOZART: Sinfonia Concertante;WALTON: Viola Concerto

Glenn Dicterow, v; Karen Dreyfus, va; WarsawPhilharmonic/ Carl St Clair, Jerzy Swoboda

Navona 5822—56 minutes

Karen Dreyfus teaches viola at the JuilliardSchool; and her husband, Glenn Dicterow, isconcertmaster of the New York Philharmonic.As can be expected, Dreyfus and Dicterow arevery polished players and have an excellentrapport in the Mozart. Both pieces are reis-sues.

I reviewed the Mozart in May/June 2003. Itis a very fine performance and definitely worthacquiring, though I still give pride of place toItzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman’srecording with the Israel Philharmonic underZubin Mehta largely on account of Zukerman’sphenomenal viola playing. I wish he wouldrecord more on the viola, because he oftensounds as if he enjoys playing it more than hedoes the violin, and he is already a stupendousviolinist and one of the greatest tonalists everon both instruments.

The Walton was issued on a different disc(Jan/Feb 1998). It is also a fine reading, but it isoutclassed by several others I know, includingNigel Kennedy’s with Andre Previn leading theRoyal Philharmonic and, my current favorite,Nobuko Imai’s with Jan Latham-Koenig lead-ing the London Philharmonic. Again, if youhaven’t heard William Primrose’s first record-ing of the first version of the concerto from1946 with the composer conducting, youhaven’t heard II at the proper, nearly impossi-

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