Mozart: Oboe Concertos

Advantages: You could become a genius
Disadvantages: But then again you might not

...to describe to a non-musician how, for example, a Radiohead track is worked out, it would sound every bit as complex as explaining Mozart’s processes. And as I never tire of saying (well, all right, yes I do) you don’t need to “understand” it to enjoy it. If you think you don’t know anything by Mozart, you’re almost certainly wrong. His “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (or “A Little Night Music”) is so well-known that there can be few who don’t know its tunes even if the title is new to them – one part was used for the film “Bugsy Malone.” Then there’s the music that used to (maybe still does) introduce The Horse Of The Year Show on television – the last movement of his “Musical Joke.” While the second movement of the 21st Piano Concerto (nowadays subtitled “Elvira Madigan” just because it was used in a film of that name) is well known from... Read review

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Advantages: Mutter's eloquence and sensitivity in older recording are enhanced here.
Disadvantages: None at all!

...As a fantastically talented eighteen-year-old, Anne-Sophie Mutter already awed me with her sensitive and thoughtful eloquence in her 1981 recording of the Brahms violin concerto (with Herbert von Karajan directing the Berlin Philharmonic). However, there’s an even deeper understanding in Mutter’s reading of the Brahms piece on this newer disc. This performance was taped live at the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, New York City, in 1997. Kurt Masur conducts the New York Philharmonic in particularly inspired fashion. A difference of fifteen years separates the two recordings. In the time between, she married, had children, and then was widowed at a very young age. When Mutter returned to her instrument, she would bring a greater strength, emotional depth and insight to her playing, lending a maturity and assuredness to her... Read review

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Advantages: Classic Brendel, good sound
Disadvantages: Classic Brendel

...After having spent quite some time, both in the studio and the concert hall, concentrating exclusively on the Beethoven Piano Sonatas and Piano Concertos, Brendel, whilst always being limited to some, (not inconsiderable, it seems) extent by physical problems in and around the areas of his back and arms, is now free to explore other music avenues. This is the second disk of Brendel's Mozart with which we have been presented over the recent past; the other being his account of two of the concertos. Here we have performances of 3 of the unaccompanied sonatas. Brendel has long been considered as being a Mozartian of zest and insight. But, for me at least, his interprtations of this Master can seem a little quirky. Its as if he doesn't, in some way, relate to the personality and musical language of Mozart with quite the same success... Read review

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