Classics for Pleasure bring back to the catalogue Gordon
Hunt’s splendid recording of the Oboe Quartet. It is in every way, not
least in its freshness, spontaneity, and stylistic awareness, a recommendable
disc at full price, let alone super-budget,. With members of the Chilingirian
Quartet in excellent form and superb sound - full, rich, clear – there’s
very little reason to hesitate. If beauty of tone and technique allied
to innate musicality is your yardstick then this is a superb re-addition
to the catalogue.
If Andrew Marriner’s performances are not on the same
exalted level then they are by any standard fine interpretations. At
times in the first movement of K581 I felt a somewhat generalized response
to the music but that is most certainly not the case by the time of
the Larghetto. The Menuetto is well upholstered and nicely accented.
The balance between instruments is realistic. Marriner’s recording of
the Concerto appeared at about the same time as Emma Johnson’s with
Raymond Leppard and the ECO and with which it was inevitably compared.
Marriner’s is an unfussy, tonally attractive and technically adroit
performance, rising to heights of eloquence in the Adagio. The London
Mozart players aren’t always optimally flexible but Jane Glover accompanies
with sureness and discretion, allowing Marriner to withdraw his tone
without being drowned. In a crowded field their performance is still
competitive.
One magnificent recording and two very fine ones at
super-budget price. A fine disc.
Jonathan Woolf
Gordon Hunt oboe