Search - Mozart, Laskin, Paillard :: Wind Concertos

A feast of Mozart wind concerti--some not heard often enough

John Grabowski | USA | 05/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you love Mozart wind concerti then this is your album, provided you're not a stickler about period correctness. These performances were recorded in the mid-to-late 60s for the label Erato, and were widely available through the 70s and 80s from the Musical Heritage Society in the U.S. They are very fine interpretations, with lots of spirit and elan. But they are products of their time, meaning the strings are lushy and silky (to post-Hogwood ears), there is (horrors!) vibrato, and agogic accents occasionally make themselves heard. You'll probably want to eat a powdered croissant and drink some tea after listening to these, while you draw the draperies in your drawing room and perhaps read a chapter of Voltaire. If you're searching for cold, "objective" interpretations that play just the notes, look to Christopher Hogwood instead. Me, I'd rather have works played with some personality, even if it's not the "authentic" personality of the period, than no personality at all.



The clarinet concerto is possibly the least successful work here--and it's still pretty darned good. But something about Jacque Lancelot's tone--buzzy--didn't agree with me. Sabine Meyer and Karl Leister have spoiled me for this work anyway, and the accompaniment is just a little plodding for my tastes. But these are relatively minor criticisms, actually. The two highlights on the disc for me are the Flute and Harp Concerto (this work is not performed often enough, probably because of the unusual instrumental combination) and the Sinfonia Concertante K. 297b. Interestingly, some newer catalogs of Mozart's works consider this latter work spurious, believing Mozart's actual Sinfonia Concertante for four wind instruments to be a different (and lost) work. Whomever wrote this piece, while it can't compare in originality and trancendental experience to his better-known Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola, K. 364, it is fun to listen to and given a spirited performance here. And that's why I adore these recordings so much, despite of the very "French" approach to Mozart: it's clear Paillard and company are having a wonderful time, while the more "correct" HIP ensembles often sound bored to death and more worried about getting the historical accuracy than in getting to the music. I'll put the spirited cadenzas played by Jean Pierre Rampal and Lily Laskine against any others ever recorded. Laskine in particular is a marvel, making the music sound effortless and leaving her partner struggling for breath at times. What a superb musician she was! If anyone is doing comparison shopping, this is a far better performance than that by Marie-Pierre Langlamet and Emmanuel Pahud on Sabine Meyer's clarinet concerto album with Abbado, an album that I found slightly disappointing overall.



The bassoon concerto is a rarely-heard treat, played with majesty and grace by Paul Hongne. The Bamberger Symphony Orchestra and Vienna Symphony (NOT the Philharmonic!) accompany the soloists well, with a lighter tone and more precise attack than the Paillard ensemble. This is the best performance of the flute concerto I've heard, but admittedly I haven't heard that many. It's not a work I go out of my way to seek out, but it's given an energetic and bouyant performance here by Rampal, who really is superb in this kind of music, sunny and childlike.



The CD is a slim-line two-fer."