Weber: Clarinet Concerto No 1; Rossini, Mozart / Stoltzman

Regular price $17.99
Label
RCA
Release Date
July 8, 2009
Format
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    Featuring
    • COMPOSER
      ROSSINI, GIOACHINO MOZART, WO
    • ORCHESTRA / ENSEMBLE
      Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
    • PERFORMER
      Alexander, Richard, Schneider, Stoltzman
    Product Details
    • RELEASE DATE
      July 08, 2009
    • UPC
      078635459920
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      RCA4599
    • LABEL
      RCA
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE

This is not a particularly generous collection: it was originally published in 1983 but never previously issued in the UK. It shows Richard Stoltzman, with his succulent tone and infectious bravura (so easily displayed in the finale of the Weber and the very operatic Rossini Variations), at his best, while the Mozart Andante, if it is to be transcribed for clarinet, needs a lighter touch: here the rich, rather deliberate phrasing loses the music's simplicity and charm. In the Weber the orchestral tuttis are somewhat hefty for a group called the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, but this is primarily the effect of the resonant acoustics of the unnamed hall where the recording was made. One tends to think of Weber's concertos as being rather more than halfway between the classical and romantic traditions; here the romanticism is very much in the ascendent. But overall the performance of the F minor Concerto combines a lively impetus in the outer movements with warmth in the Adagio whilst the orchestra—notably the horns—add much to the listener's enjoyment.

-- Ivan March, Gramophone [10/1989, reviewing RCA 60035]