Search - Mozart, Hoeprich, Schachmann :: 3 Quartets

Pretty disappointing

Jonathan J. Casey | the twin cities | 08/19/2000

(2 out of 5 stars)

"The oboe soloist, Marc Schachman, is not very good at all. He sounds constantly one step behind the rest of the group and misses far too many notes for a profession musician. There are plenty of good historical performances available on the oboe (try Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra's recording of the Mozart oboe concerto) but this is not one of them. The clarinet quartet, a transcription of a violin sonata, comes off pretty well but there's also a smoother recording by L'Archibudelli out there (and it doesn't stand up as one of Mozart's more important works). The string quartet (one of the so-called "Prussian") is quite fine, as the string players are pretty strong. Since the general quality of the recording is relatively poor, however, you might as well get Quatuor Mosaique's version and avoid the sloppy oboe quartet that opens this disc. It's too bad because the price is right, but the quality isn't up to par."