Issued in cooperation with the Bayreuth Radio and part of Hänssler’s ongoing Profil series devoted to Wand, these performances—recorded at the 1982 Nuremberg Mozart Festival—are at once tasteful and stylish. The heaviness that sometimes infected the approach of such one-time admired Mozartians as Beecham and Walter is absent: tempos are well judged, mannerism avoided, the music simply set forth without affectation. I have always found this huge eight-movement serenade somewhat uneven, but it certainly has more than a few magnificent Mozart moments. And the great (extraordinarily demanding) concert aria, K 528, is projected by Wiens with virtuosity and temperament. Aside from a slight edginess in the strings, the sound is fine. In short, for those interested in the artists or the repertoire, this release is worth having.

Mortimer H. Frank , FANFARE