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Mozart: Serenade No. 11 - SCO Wind Soloists

Mozart: Serenade No. 11 - SCO Wind Soloists

Linn Records  CKD 479

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Chamber


Mozart: Serenade in E-flat major, K. 375; Divertimento in F major, K. 253; Divertimento in B-flat major, K. 270; Divertimento in E-flat major, K. 252/240a; Divertimento in B-flat major, K. 240

Scottish Chamber Orchestra Wind Soloists:
Maximiliano Martin & William Stafford, clarinets
Peter Whelan & Alison Green, bassoons
Alec Frank-Gemmill & Harry Johnstone, horns


Inspired by the legacy of the great Mozartian conductors of the SCO including Sir Charles Mackerras, the Wind Soloists make a fine contribution to the SCO's distinguished Mozart discography.

Following the success of performances and recordings of Weber's Wind Concertos with SCO principals as soloists, the SCO Wind Soloists that feature on this album have since 2012 started to explore Harmoniemusik repertoire.

This new recording includes four of the five Tafelmusik sextets for pairs of clarinets, horns and bassoons, together with the Serenade in E flat major, the first of Mozart's three great wind serenades. The Serenade in E flat major has many unusual features. Its opening fanfare - a series of repeated chords on the tonic in E flat - immediately catches the ear. The fact that Mozart avoids fatiguing the listener with a surfeit of the same sonorities, in music with a necessarily limited dynamic and instrumental range, bears eloquent testimony to his genius.

This recording captures the wealth of detail in Mozart's Divertimenti; there is something in each of them for every music lover.

Comprising pairs of clarinet, bassoons and natural horns, the players are dedicated to performing each work in a stylish and informed way, from the masterpieces of Mozart, Beethoven and Weber to twentieth-century works and contemporary commissions.

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Review by Graham Williams - February 16, 2015

This is a lovely disc consisting mostly of Mozart's lighter music for wind ensemble played here by six of the splendid wind soloists of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The exception is the magnificent Serenade in E flat K375 that, together with the Serenade in C minor K388 and the 'Gran Partita' K375, represents one of the composer's greatest masterpieces in this genre.

On this SACD the Serenade is performed in its original version for two clarinets, two bassoons and two horns rather than the one we usually hear which adds a pair of oboes and thus encapsulates it into a body of compositions known in Mozart's time as Harmoniemusik. Tempi in each of the work's five movements are judiciously chosen by these excellent musicians, and the beguiling sound quality – especially the appropriately abrasive rasp of the two natural horns – brings us closer to what Mozart must have heard when this Serenade was played outside his apartment on 31st October 1781.

Though the four Divertimenti that follow may lack the stature of the Serenade they do make for delightful listening; allowing one to revel in Mozart's fluent craftsmanship and artless charm. K253 opens with an attractive Theme and six variations while K252 features a lively Polonaise, something not often found in Mozart's oeuvre. Elsewhere in these works the listener is entranced by a stream of dances that include minuets, pastorales and buoyant allegros.

Linn's very fine recording, made by Philip Hobbs in the Stevenson Hall at Scotland's Royal Conservatoire, Glasgow in April 2014 places the six players with striking immediacy across the sound stage. The microphones do pick up the occasional intake of breath from the performers and a tiny amount of mechanism noise from their instruments, but this only adds to the sense of realism and is in no way distracting.

I would venture to suggest that few things could engender a feeling of relaxed well-being more than listening to this SACD with, of course, a glass of Highland single malt whisky close to hand.

Invaluable liner notes by Robert Levin complete this most attractive and recommendable release.

Copyright © 2015 Graham Williams and HRAudio.net

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