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Rating: The "Deluxe" editions, created to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus' birth, have flooded the market in the early months of the year.
The ones from the Harmonia Mundi label seem particularly significant to me: stunning graphic design, a booklet-style packaging rich in information and splendid lithographs, immaculate recording quality. When they also contain two such compositions, performed splendidly, it becomes clear that we are dealing with a truly unmissable CD.
The quintet for clarinet and strings and the trio for piano, viola, and clarinet are two works belonging to Mozart's final period, but in them, there is no foreshadowing of the imminent end: rather a serene outlook on the world, just lightly tinged here and there with a hint of melancholy. Starting with the initial "Allegro" of the quintet in question: the two violins, viola, and cello sculpt a theme as clear as spring water, and the voice of the clarinet emerges from it in a completely natural way, almost like the unfolding of a daisy's petals: and when from this theme a melody develops in which the wind instrument produces almost oriental inflections, well, the ear is already filled with pleasure. And we're only at the first movement of the composition... the second, an ethereal and impalpable "Larghetto", seems made of the same stuff as dreams: the soft and velvety sound emanating from the reeds seems to come from a distant region of our subconscious. And upon awakening, one can revel in the "Minuet" and the final "Allegretto with variations", all played on the thread of a tight dialogue between the clarinet and the strings, with the latter weaving delightful completed melodies in the manner of a quartet and the former skillfully embroidering precious notes. The "Kegelstatt" trio (so-called because its first performance seemingly took place in a Viennese house where several social games were played, one of the most appreciated involving the pleasant objects now found in bowling alleys) is certainly a composition with a more intimate and introspective character, without the exuberance that characterizes the previous one. Nonetheless, the opening "Andante" completely captivates the listener precisely for the sense of calm and almost Olympian serenity it manages to convey, a calm and serenity that in the subsequent "Minuet" acquire an almost solemn character before softening into the sweet atmosphere of the final "Rondeaux". The salient feature of the composition in question is precisely the magnificent sense of fusion that occurs between the piano, viola, and clarinet, engaged sometimes in presenting fluent melodies, sometimes in rhythmically supporting their companions.
And in conclusion, it is right to mention one of them: the superb flutist Michel Portal, who here takes on one of the greatest composers in history, elsewhere with the writing of Astor Piazzolla, when not indulging with his group in forays into informal jazz, demonstrating that there are no fences or boundaries between great Music.
For our joy as listeners.
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