Mozart: Serenade No. 10 in B flat major, K361 'Gran Partita' (Serenade for 13 wind instruments)

“The Berg is superbly played… Christian Tetzlaff plays the solo violin part with breathtaking technical mastery…” BBC Music Magazine, December 2008 *****

“…there's a sense of fun, of genial affection for the music. Whether in the fluid lines of the tender Adagio or the yearning Andante, or in the bustling, concise finale, where everything - in the true spirit of opera buffa - seems to come right, Boulez makes plain his relish for the work [Mozart Gran Partita]. Berg's Chamber Concerto was also written for an auspicious event - the 50th birthday of his friend and mentor Arnold Schoenberg. ...what makes Mitsuko Uchida and Christian Tetzlaff outstanding is their feeling for the piece's inherent theatricality. ...Urchida brings to the opening variation set a breathtaking rhapsody... the Rondo ritmico, begins with a swirling cadenza. The freedom of the two players here is extraordinary, undoubtedly helped by the fact that they toured the work before taking it into the studio.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2008

“[In the Mozart] the EIC's phrasing is a model of clarity and good taste. It's the performance of the Berg, though, that makes this such an important issue; both soloists...are perfectly attuned to Boulez's approach...The authority and logic of the performance are compelling, and this is easily the best version of this intractable work to appear on CD.” The Guardian, 24th October 2008 *****

“Moonwinds play all this with spirit and finesse (the oboe solo in the second movement of the Martín is especially fine).” Gramophone Magazine, July 2007

Michael Collins further entrenches his place among the first rank of clarinettists with this rather heavenly recording of Mozart Serenades. He leads the London Winds with great sensitivity and, when called for, virtuosic flair. A class act. A classy disc. - Gramophone Magazine

“Led with flair and imagination by Michael Collins, London Winds give a vital, refined performanceof the Gran Partita, exceptionally transparent in texture and full of felicitous detail: the wonderfully veiled pianissimo coda of the Romanze fifth movement, for instance; or the eloquently phrased oboe cantilena against the dulcet murmurings of clarinets and basset horns in the adagio variation.
Outer movements are crisp and athletic, with an easy, quick-witted sense of instrumental interplay; and the two minuets are sharply contrasted, the first done as a stately menuetto galante, its G minor Trio more elegiac than agitated, the second as a perky Ländler. Some may raise an eyebrow at the use of contrabassoon instead of Mozart's prescribed double bass (contrabassoons had notoriously unreliable plumbing in the 1780s). But there are gains in overall blend, even if you might miss the double bass's pizzicato twangs in the second minuet's beery Trio. The only reservation comes with the Adagio third movement, the work's emotional core, where the pulsing accompaniment impinges too prominently on the soaring exchanges of oboe, clarinet and basset horn.
As a fill-up London Winds offer that most undiverting of serenades, K388, in a fine performance, amply powerful and urgent but notable for its poetry and inwardness, whether in the sorrowful, syncopated variant of the 'second subject' in the opening Allegro's recapitulation, or the Trio's exquisite 'mirror canon', celestially floated here by oboes and bassoons.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Mozart's great wind serenades are well served on CD, with particularly fine performances of the grandest of them all the so-called Gran Partita, K361. This new version from the Berlin Philharmonic wind players is perhaps the most impressive yet, equally capturing both the music's irrepressible high spirits and its sensuousness.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2006 *****

“A challenge for any group performing Mozart's great wind serenades is finding a happy balance between a euphonious ensemble blend and pungent individual characterisation. In both works here – the so-called Gran partita for 12 wind instruments plus double bass, and the E flat Serenade K375 – the princely Berlin Philharmonic Wind Ensemble achieve this beautifully.
The players respond exuberantly to the rustic elements of K375 – the two jaunty minuets and the bubbly finale, with its gleeful exchanges between the instruments. But their immaculately tuned performance is even more remarkable for its subtlety and poetic shaping, whether in the first movement (done quite spaciously, in keeping with its maestoso marking), the melancholy C minor Trio of the first Minuet (magical soft horn playing here) or the rapt Adagio.
The Berliners are truly athletic and ebullient in the first movement of the Gran partita, yet never underestimate its symphonic import. As in K375, the instrumental interplay is managed with delightful elegance and ease. There's a crucial sense of fun, too, in the rollicking finale, with the players adding cheeky touches of ornamentation and tellingly varying the dynamics on repeats.
Characterisation is just as apt and imaginative in the other movements. The two minuets are sharply contrasted in tempo, the first quite stately (yet with an underlying urgency in the haunting G minor trio), the second briskly bucolic, with a relaxed swing to its Ländler second Trio. The dulcet outer sections of the Romanze are offset by an unusually mysterious, disquieting C minor central Allegretto, held down to piano, as Mozart asks; and the variations in the sixth movement are full of felicities, from the frolicking first variation to the ravishing fifth, where the first oboe sings with vocal eloquence against softly lulling basset-horns and clarinets. Here and elsewhere the players get the often tricky instrumental balances exactly right; and thanks, too, to EMI's beautifully judged recording inner details of part writing – especially from the bassoons – that usually go for little or nothing register perfectly.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The players respond exuberantly to the rustic elements of K375 - the two jaunty minuets and the bubbly finale, with its gleeful exchanges between the instruments. But their immaculately tuned performance is even more remarkable for its subtlety and poetic shaping... The Berliners are more athletic and ebullient in the first movement of the Gran partita... There's a crucial sense of fun, too, in the rollicking finale, with the players adding cheeky touches of ornamentation and tellingly varying the dynamics on repeats.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2006

“After repeated listenings to this 1988 recording, the more it can be valued for its straightforward, always thoroughly musical approach - with a convincingly slow tempo for the 'Amadeus Adagio'. An outstanding bargain recommendation.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2009