An essential list of Mozart concerti

[PerfectWagnerite]

IMHO your first purchase should be the Clarinet Concerto.  Its one of the most perfect works ever written.  However, please purchase a version on the basset clarinet (such as Sabine Meyer or Martin Frost) as the modern clarinet version has to take several passages up an octave.

I haven't heard Meyer but the Frost is pretty much essential listening. Clarinet players dream of the kind of legato playing (you wouldn't think he took a breath in the whole piece) and the kind of sparkling tone, absolutely even and with complete control, up and down the registers. The orchetral playing is squeaky clean with a nice airy recorded sound. Frost also does some creative embellishments, but they are not gimmicky and don't detract from the piece. Yeah there are probably hundreds of recordings of this piece but this one is terrific.

[hornteacher]

I haven't heard Meyer but the Frost is pretty much essential listening. Clarinet players dream of the kind of legato playing (you wouldn't think he took a breath in the whole piece) and the kind of sparkling tone, absolutely even and with complete control, up and down the registers. The orchetral playing is squeaky clean with a nice airy recorded sound. Frost also does some creative embellishments, but they are not gimmicky and don't detract from the piece. Yeah there are probably hundreds of recordings of this piece but this one is terrific.

I agree about the Frost's tone.  Its what jumped out at me from my first listen.  His Brahms CD is marvellous too.  Haven't heard the Weber CD yet but I assume its great.

[adamdavid80]

I agree about the Frost's tone.  Its what jumped out at me from my first listen.  His Brahms CD is marvellous too.  Haven't heard the Weber CD yet but I assume its great.

NOBODY in NYC has the Frost CD!!!   You would think it would be easy enough...two different Virgin Megastores, various Borders and Barnes and Nobles, Academy, a neighborhood shop here and there...nada!

Am I really going to have order this from amazon?  where's the fun of the hunt in that???

[PerfectWagnerite]

NOBODY in NYC has the Frost CD!!!   You would think it would be easy enough...two different Virgin Megastores, various Borders and Barnes and Nobles, Academy, a neighborhood shop here and there...nada!

Am I really going to have order this from amazon?  where's the fun of the hunt in that???

You can listen to the entire cd for free by going to rhapsody.com and simply downloading the player. For a free regular membership you get 25 free tracks per month (more than enough for 3 or 4 full length cds) and you don't even have to give a credit card number. The entire Frost cd is here once you downloaded the player:

http://www.rhapsody.com/wolfgangamadeusmozart/mozartclarinetconcertoinamajorclarinetquintetinamajor

[adamdavid80]

You can listen to the entire cd for free by going to rhapsody.com and simply downloading the player. For a free regular membership you get 25 free tracks per month (more than enough for 3 or 4 full length cds) and you don't even have to give a credit card number. The entire Frost cd is here once you downloaded the player:

http://www.rhapsody.com/wolfgangamadeusmozart/mozartclarinetconcertoinamajorclarinetquintetinamajor

Yikes...you ARE good.  Wanna do my taxes this year too?  I could use a good rebate!

BTW, stopped in Academy today, and found for the low, low price of $4 a copy of the ASMITF/Marriner performance - along with the oboe concerto.  This is the one from Out of Africa?  Surprised no one's mentioned it - Jack Brymer.  Listening to it now...seems to work for me!

(Meanwhile, with all the great advice regarding the clarinet concerto, there's one voice who's knowledged perspective I'm still dying to read: Karl Henning...if I could interest you in taking the mic?)

[PerfectWagnerite]

Yikes...you ARE good.  Wanna do my taxes this year too?  I could use a good rebate!

I do my own taxes every year, with pen, paper and a calculator. Then my wife thinks I am doing it wrong and this year took it to a tax accountant, who made so many mistakes that NY State keeps sending us bills afterwards. So I basically told my wife all these so called experts are worth basically sh*t.

I haven't heard the Marriner version. It should be pretty good. I have the Barry/Out of Africa soundtrack and the playing is first rate. I just can't take Stoltzman. The only worse recording is probably Benny Goodman, who can't find his way around this work with a flashlight.

[adamdavid80]

I do my own taxes every year, with pen, paper and a calculator. Then my wife thinks I am doing it wrong and this year took it to a tax accountant, who made so many mistakes that NY State keeps sending us bills afterwards. So I basically told my wife all these so called experts are worth basically sh*t.

I haven't heard the Marriner version. It should be pretty good. I have the Barry/Out of Africa soundtrack and the playing is first rate. I just can't take Stoltzman. The only worse recording is probably Benny Goodman, who can't find his way around this work with a flashlight.

Sounds like your wife took your returns to the CPA I also used!

Yeah, this disc is solid.  I actually REALLY am taken by Neil Black's performance of the oboe concerto.  Is it true the oboe concerto was initially intended for the flutte?  If so, why the change of instrumentation?

[PerfectWagnerite]

Yeah, this disc is solid.  I actually REALLY am taken by Neil Black's performance of the oboe concerto.  Is it true the oboe concerto was initially intended for the flutte?  If so, why the change of instrumentation?

Don't know, but wikipedia says:

The Flute Concerto No. 2 in D Major is an adaptation of the original oboe concerto. Dutch flautist Ferdinand De Jean (1731-1797) commissioned Mozart for four flute quartets and three flute concerti; which Mozart only completed three quartets and only one new flute concerto. Instead of creating a new second concerto, Mozart rearranged the oboe concerto he had written a year earlier as the second flute concerto, although with substantial changes to it to fit what the composer deemed flute-like. However, De Jean did not pay Mozart for this concerto because it was based on the oboe concerto.

which sounds good enough for me. Personally I think it isn't really that good a piece of music, then again Flute concerto #1 in G major isn't hot stuff either. Had they been written by a minor composer they would have been long relegated to the dustbins a long time ago. Nowadays name a major flutist who hasn't recorded these works.

[adamdavid80]

Don't know, but wikipedia says:

The Flute Concerto No. 2 in D Major is an adaptation of the original oboe concerto. Dutch flautist Ferdinand De Jean (1731-1797) commissioned Mozart for four flute quartets and three flute concerti; which Mozart only completed three quartets and only one new flute concerto. Instead of creating a new second concerto, Mozart rearranged the oboe concerto he had written a year earlier as the second flute concerto, although with substantial changes to it to fit what the composer deemed flute-like. However, De Jean did not pay Mozart for this concerto because it was based on the oboe concerto.

which sounds good enough for me. Personally I think it isn't really that good a piece of music, then again Flute concerto #1 in G major isn't hot stuff either. Had they been written by a minor composer they would have been long relegated to the dustbins a long time ago. Nowadays name a major flutist who hasn't recorded these works.

I agree.  Definitely not Moz's finest, but I really like Neil Black's performance here.  Really nice tone and color he gives the piece.  I used to have one...I think from Orpheus that I never really gave much notice to.  So for the oboe to jump out of the speakers like this...

[Bulldog]

NOBODY in NYC has the Frost CD!!!   You would think it would be easy enough...two different Virgin Megastores, various Borders and Barnes and Nobles, Academy, a neighborhood shop here and there...nada!

Am I really going to have order this from amazon?  where's the fun of the hunt in that???

No fun at all.  Here in Albuquerque, about 1% of new releases are stocked in the stores.  Interesting to hear that even NYC has inadequate inventories.

[DavidW]

No fun at all.  Here in Albuquerque, about 1% of new releases are stocked in the stores.  Interesting to hear that even NYC has inadequate inventories.

Where I live your selection is "the best of..." and that's pretty much it.  And they are overpriced.  Physical cd stores that you walk into are just going away.

[Gabriel]

Well, my list would be the following:

Piano concerto, KV 271.
Flute and Harp concerto, KV 299.
Piano concerto, KV 449.
Piano concerto, KV 459.
Piano concerto, KV 466.
Piano concerto, KV 488.
Piano concerto, KV 491.
Piano concerto, KV 595.
Clarinet concerto, KV 622.

No mention for other wind concertos, nor violin concertos, which despite being beautiful works, I wouldn't consider as essential. (Anyway, lato sensu I would consider the complete piano concertos not just essential for Mozart, but for any selection of music).