Search - Brahms, Mozart, Wiener Oktett :: Clarinet Quintets

Marvelous Brahms and Mozart (but in mono)

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 01/15/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Alfred Boskovsky, the clarinetist here, is the younger brother of the legendary Willy Boskovsky, the once-concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic and one of the greatest Johann Strauss conductors of recent times. Alfred, too, was a member of the VPO and he founded the Vienna Octet in the 1940s, a group that made marvelous chamber recordings for a quarter of a century.



These performances date from the early 1950s, and indeed brother Willy is the first violinist in both pieces. These clarinet quintets, of course, are the absolute cornerstone of clarinet and strings chamber music literature and they are given loving and expert attention here. Of particular note are the extraordinary dynamic nuances that these musicians provide, along with fluid tempi and natural phrasing. And, of course, as befits VPO musicians the intonation is, to my ears, extraordinary. Add to that the incredible warmth of these performances and you have really irresistible recordings. It matters not to me that this CD is in mono--exceptional sound from Testament, but mono nonetheless--but it might bother others. Hence the four-star rating. I wouldn't want to be without other recordings of the Brahms and Mozart clarinet quintets (Reginald Kell/Budapest Qt., Karl Leister/Leipzig Qt.) but I wouldn't want to be without this one, either.



TT=66'11"



Scott Morrison"