Wolfgang Meyer, Quatuor Mosaïques - Mozart: Quintette avec clarinette (2013)

There’s been much musicological cap-doffing toward the valedictory pronouncements of the A major Clarinet Concerto, K622, Mozart’s last orchestral work, and his final Piano Concerto, K595 in B flat, also of 1791. Historical fact suggests that these works pursue a strand of resignation eloquently debated two years previously, in the Clarinet Quintet, K581. Of four new versions, that from Wolfgang Meyer and the Quatuor Mosaïques offers the richest insight into the pathos of the work. Meyer’s tonal opulence, notably in the oft-exploited "chalumeau" register perfected by Anton Stadler, for whom Mozart wrote the Quintet and the Concerto K622, is only occasionally marred by the rattling key-work of his reproduction basset-clarinet. Charles Neidich has fewer mechanical problems to contend with in his Sony performance with L’Archibudelli. The playing is cultured, if occasionally clinical, and although lacking the spiritual rapprochement of the Auvidis account, the disc offers marginally better value for money, with the inclusion of the Clarinet Quartet, K317d, a reworking of the K378 violin sonata. Neidich is joined by Robert Levin and Jürgen Kussmaul in the so-called Kegelstatt (literally ‘Skittles’) Trio, K498; fine as they are, their rivals enkindle greater immediacy and involvement... Do investigate Meyer’s ineffably beautiful reading of K581; I hope to be returning to this disc with reverential gratitude for many years to come!