The legion of admirers of the charismatic violinist Arabella Steinbacher will need little urging to investigate the latest release in her rapidly growing discography on the PENTATONE label and will certainly be delighted by her lovely performances of the three Mozart Violin concertos presented here.

Two versions that couple these particular concertos have already appeared on SACD; one from Marianne Thorsen Mozart: Violin Concertos - Thorsen in fine surround sound, and in addition a period performance from Andrew Manze Mozart: Violin Concertos 3-5 - Manze. However, it can't fail to be noticed by collectors that PENTATONE has already almost cornered the market on these concertos with the award-winning recordings made by Julia Fischer and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra conducted by the late Yakov Kreizberg, Mozart: Violin Concertos 3 & 4 - Fischer, Kreizberg and Super Artists on Super Audio, and it is fair to say that Arabella Steinbacher's versions of these three works complement, rather than in any way supplant, those by Fischer.

Steinbacher's playing delivers a richer more full-blooded sound than Fischer's more silvery tone and this coupled with her choice of marginally more expansive tempi lean her performances closer to those of the past rather than exponents of currently fashionable 'period practice'. Her poised and unforced cantabile style in the slow movements of K216 and K218 is especially ingratiating, but throughout the disc subtle refinement can be found in abundance. The choice of cadenzas in these concertos, though hardly a deciding factor, is worth mentioning. Fischer mostly uses cadenzas by herself and her conducting partner whereas Steinbacher opts for those by Joseph Joachim in K218 and K219 and Wolfgang Schneiderhan in K216. All are models of appropriate style and good taste.

The 26 players of the Festival Strings, Lucerne, (a group established as long ago as 1956 by Wolfgang Schneiderhan and Rudolf Baumgartner) here directed by their current Artistic Director Daniel Dodds, provide alert and spirited accompaniments in all three concertos.

The 5.0 DSD multi-channel recording, made in the clean and open acoustic of Kirche Oberstrass in Zurich by the experienced team from Polyhymnia of Job Maarse, Erdo Groot and Roger de Schot, could hardly be improved upon. In this respect it even manages marginally to improve on the Julia Fischer recordings of these pieces where the more reverberant acoustic of the Waalse Kirche in Amsterdam and what sounds like a larger Netherlands Chamber Orchestra result in the wind parts being fractionally less clearly focussed.

In the final analysis, the listener's own personal taste must inevitably be the deciding factor when comparisons are being made between these outstanding performances from Steinbacher and Fischer – both consummate artists. It is to be hoped that the rest of Mozart's concertante works for violin and orchestra will eventually appear from Arabella Steinbacher and her talented colleagues.

In the meantime this excellent issue is enthusiastically recommended.

Copyright © 2014 Graham Williams and HRAudio.net

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