Editorial Reviews

Mozart's concertos for winds, presented complete on this budget-priced three-CD set, include some of the most beguiling and tuneful music the composer ever wrote. From the early Bassoon Concerto (1774) to the late and masterful Clarinet Concerto (1791), Mozart penned concertos for each of the woodwind instruments and no less than four for the French horn. (As for the other brass, he never did care for the trumpet, and a concerto for trombone would have been rather radical in Mozart's day.) He also graced us with the E-Flat Sinfonia Concertante, which features a quartet of winds with orchestra, and the lovely Flute and Harp Concerto, an utterly charming and surprisingly unusual pairing of solo instruments. This collection also includes the stand-alone Andante for Flute and Orchestra, possibly a fragment of an unfinished work. Recorded between 1987 and 1989, this was one of the earliest digital releases of this music, and the sound remains sparklingly clear on this reissue, particularly on the Sinfonia Concertante, the last to be recorded. Performing is the conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, with its members taking turns in the soloist's spotlight. And to say there is no standout performance is less a criticism than an acknowledgement of the consistently high standard of playing: Charles Neidich's Clarinet Concerto is stylish and spirited, performed with the basset horn that Mozart called for (a close cousin to the clarinet but with a slightly lower range); William Purvis and David Jolley spell each other on the Horn Concertos, playing two apiece; Harpist Nancy Allen joins Susan Palma for a graceful reading of the Flute and Harp Concerto (Palma also offers the Flute Concerto and the Andante for Flute); Frank Morelli and Randall Wolfgang star in the Bassoon and Oboe Concertos; and still other Orpheus members come together for the Sinfonia Concertante. All told, there's an awful lot of wonderful music here, elegantly performed -- and for the price, a glorious bargain. EJ Johnson, Barnes & Noble

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