Mozart: Clarinet Trio in E flat major, K498 "Kegelstatt-Trio"

Recording location: Sofiensaal, Vienna, Austria, October 1956 (KV 498, 452), June 1957 (Beethoven), September 1962 (M. Haydn), October 1963 (KV 581), October 1964 (KV 99)

This recording forms part of a series of 10 reissues celebrating the glorious Decca recordings from the 1950s-1970s of the Wiener Oktett (Vienna Octet), made up of key principals from the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Five titles were released in September and the remaining five are released this month.

Receiving their first international release on CD are the Mozart Clarinet Trio, his Cassation (written when the composer was a mere thirteen!), and the piano-and-wind Quintets of Mozart and Beethoven. The ‘soloists’ within the chamber ensemble – if, as such, one might identify them – are one of the Vienna Octet’s founders, Alfred Boskovsky, and the Octet’s ‘house’ pianist, Walter Panhofer. The mellow writing for the clarinet in both the Mozart Quintets was inspired by the playing of Anton Stadler. This anthology is also unique in that it affords us the only recording on which Willi Boskovsky played the viola – in the ‘Kegelstatt’ Trio. Concluding this anthology is the delightful G major Divertimento by Michael Haydn (Joseph’s younger brother). Found in the British Museum and edited by the Vienna Octet’s bassist, it was often used by the group as a concert opener.

Two slimmer works of Austro-German chamber repertoire - Mozart's popular 'Kegelstatt' (skittles) Trio and Weber's lesser known but quite virtuoso Flute Trio preface Brahms's magnificent Horn Trio on these rare L'Oiseau-Lyre recordings from The Melos Ensemble. All represent first releases on CD.

"(Mozart) ...a very satisfying performance of the Mozart Clarinet Trio... warranting the very strongest recommendation." Gramophone.

"(Weber) ... when it is played as beautifully as it is here it will certainly find admirers." Gramophone.

In sum, what differentiates Salieri from Mozart? Talent, genius? Invention, imagination? Let us think about two other Mozarts in the history of art: Pushkin and Vermeer. They have the same sovereign elegance, the same art of dancers to whose eye naturalness is more than a virtue - indeed a condition of life. They have the same fluidity in the sequence of events, the same apparent limited means, the same grace in motion. The same precise cruelty, the same tendreness. They bring the same tears to he eyes, welling up from the same place.

This recording presents the première recording of the Grande Sonate, an anonymous arrangement for fortepiano and basset clarinet of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet and Clarinet Concerto were originally written for the basset clarinet which has four more chromatic notes at the bottom of its range than the standard clarinet.

The original recording now reissued with the added bonus of Mozart's Quintet for Piano and Wind played by the inimitable Nash Ensemble.

Melba Recordings presents some of Australia’s most dynamic players of chamber music in Beloved of the Gods, essaying masterpieces by two divinely inspired master composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn, both of whom died tragically young.

The Dean Emmerson Dean trio, comprising clarinettist Paul Dean, brother violist (and leading Australian composer) Brett Dean and pianist Stephen Emmerson, play Mozart’s Trio for Clarinet, Viola and Piano in E flat major, K498 ‘Kegelstatt’. They follow this with Papamina Suite, an arrangement of music from Mozart’s The Magic Flute by Stephen Emmerson. This release follows Paul Dean’s acclaimed recording with Grainger Quartet of the Mozart Clarinet Quintet, and the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with The Queensland Orchestra and Guillaume Tourniaire on Sublime Mozart (MR 301122). ‘As near perfection as one could ever expect to hear’ said SA-CD.NET. Paul Dean has been described as ‘the most distinguished clarinettist of his generation’ and an Australian national treasure.

The brilliant young Tinalley String Quartet plays the Mendelssohn String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op.13, ‘Ist es wahr’ which won them the Banff International Chamber Music Competition award in 2007.