Mozart Concertos

Mozart's flute concertos are of course a Holy Grail for flautist François Lazarevitch, one that he has decided to tackle together with his ensemble Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien in connection with their work on sources of interpretation. He has recorded the two concertos for flute and orchestra on a one-keyed flute, a copy of an instrument made in Mozart’s time, and the concerto in C for flute and harp on an eight-keyed flute — a flute with a C foot — with Sandrine Chatron playing a period harp by François-Joseph Naderman. As Mozart left no original cadenzas for the flute concertos, François Lazarevitch has created his own, drawing inspiration from the cadenzas Mozart composed for his piano concertos. The Menuets and Gavottes in the final movements are particularly highlighted by the ensemble’s expertise in music for dancing: "after a first movement that is a little solemn and a second that is more lyrical, the final movements are often a moment for release in dance," concludes Lazarevitch.

If Mozart gave the concerto of his time its ultimate shape, it is because he transferred to it all the characteristics of the opera aria, giving the cantabile – which he often mentions in his correspondence – most significant importance and transforming the vocal virtuosic runs instrumental figurations. The soloist is a character whose rhetoric gives the orchestral material presented in the introduction a deeper, more intimate and more sensitive dimension. This constitutes the raison d’être of the relationship between the individual and the group, between the solos and the tuttis.

Six ans après le premier, un nouveau lot de six concertos, où tarte à la crème du "divin Mozart" ne résiste pas aux assauts de solistes et d'orchestres allumés. Six raretés, par ailleurs.

Pour le flûtiste François Lazarevitch, les concertos de Mozart sont bien sûr un graal qu’il a décidé d’aborder avec son ensemble les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, dans la continuité de leur travail sur les sources interprétatives… Sur une flûte à une clé, copie d’un instrument de l’époque mozartienne, il a enregistré les deux concertos pour flûte et orchestre et sur une flûte à huit clés, flûte avec une patte d’ut, le concerto (en ut) pour flûte et harpe, avec Sandrine Chatron qui joue une harpe ancienne de François-Joseph Naderman.

The three concertos are young Mozart's first in the genre (along with the Pasticci concertos 1-4), and are based on tunes by J.C. Bach. While the questions are rightly posed, "how much of this did Mozart write and how much of it was Leopold or other sources," the music stands for itself. While not neccesarily the work of a young genius sprung fully formed from Zeus' head, they are excellent examples of galant composition.

Here is a compilation of the best Mozart recordings at our catalogue by renowned artists such as Riccardo Muti, Emmanuel Pahud, Sabine Meyer, Daniel Barenboim and David Oistrakh… All are performed along with the Berliner Philharmoniker, probably the most celebrated orchestra in the world!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Concertos pour vents (2021) {2CD Set, Diapason DIAP132 rec 1953-1961}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 650 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 359 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 14 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2021 Diapason | DIAP132 | Les Indispensables de Diapason N°132
Classical / Viennese School / Chamber Music

Incredibly the Bassoon Concerto was written when Mozart was only eighteen. By this stage in his life he had already written about thirty symphonies, a dozen string quartets and several Italian operas. The Flute Concerto is notable for the fact that Mozart did not like the flute as an instrument, famously stating 'whenever I have to write music for an instrument I dislike, I immediately lose interest'. In 1791, the last year of his life, Mozart wrote the Clarinet Concerto. Interestingly the Clarinet Concerto was not composed for a standard clarinet in A but for an instrument the court clarinettist Anton Stadler had developed which extended the instrument's lower range by four notes.

Radu Lupu and Murray Perahia should have recorded all of Mozart's piano music for four hands, which includes several neglected masterpieces. This disc reflects their ideal partnership, two artists of great sensitivity collaborating in performances that feature constant interplay of parts, alertness to each other's work, and superb playing as individuals. The Concerto for Two Pianos ripples along without a care in the world, just as it should, and the English Chamber Orchestra doesn't seem to care that nobody is conducting it. The pieces without orchestra are a bit less significant (as is the Concerto for Three Pianos), but the playing is so beautiful you won't care.