Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Flute Quartets (James Galway; Tokyo String Quartet)

Information

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

• (01) Quartet in D major, KV 285
• (04) Quartet in G major, KV 285a
• (06) Quartet in C major, KV 285b
• (14) Quartet in A major, KV 298
• (21) Quartet in F major, KV 370 (Oboe Quartet, arr. Galway)

James Galway, flute

Tokyo String Quartet

Peter Oundjian & Kikuei Ikeda, violins

Kazuhide Isomura, viola

Sadao Harada, cello

Date: 1993

Label: RCA

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

According to Roger Lustig's well-researched programme notes, Mozart's self-declared dislike for the flute says more about the circumstances surrounding the composition of his works for the instrument than it does about any real hatred for the instrument itself. Furthermore, the performances of the Flute Quartets by James Galway and the Tokyo Quartet, here under review, speak equally eloquently for Mozart's evident care in their composition—this despite Hans Keller's dismissal of them.

The first two quartets, K285 and K285a were written in 1776/7 for the Dutch nobleman Dejean. The playing here is full of Mozartian grace and sensuous melodiousness. At the beginning of the possibly inauthentic C major Quartet, K285b, Galway achieves a delightful liquid quality. The later Quartet, K298 is more substantial and draws playing of haunting intensity from Galway and the Tokyo. The slow tempo of this Quartet's second movement is slower than in the Bennett/Grumiaux version on Philips whose performance has a much more jaunty feel to it. Galway's disc is rounded off with his own arrangement of the Oboe Quartet, K370, whose sumptuous slow movement and elegant finale make this an attractive added bonus. One minor reservation: it is useful to have individual variations separately tracked (K285b.2 and K298.1) but, in the earlier Quartet, there is an annoying click on my disc as the tracks change.

The principal difference between the Galway/ Tokyo and the Bennett/Grumiaux versions reflects the recordings and the circumstances surrounding them. Galway's choice of slower tempos might well have been conditioned, at least in part, by the spacious church acoustic in which it was recorded. The Bennett/Grumiaux was recorded in 1969, but the digital transfer is excellent. These are both fine discs, so choice will be determined by personal taste.

-- Gramophone

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 in Salzburg – 5 December 1791 in Vienna) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. Till his death in Vienna, he composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. Mozart is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence is profound on subsequent Western art music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart

***

James Galway (born 8 December 1939) is an Irish virtuoso flute player from Belfast, nicknamed "The Man With the Golden Flute". Galway studied at the Royal College of Music under John Francis and then at the Guildhall School of Music under Geoffrey Gilbert. He then studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Gaston Crunelle and Jean-Pierre Rampal. Galway was principal flute of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1969 to 1975 before he left the orchestra to pursue his solo career. Following in the footsteps of Jean-Pierre Rampal, he became one of the first flute players to establish an international career as a soloist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Galway
http://jamesgalway.com/

***

Tokyo String Quartet was an international string quartet that operated from 1969 to 2013. The group formed in 1969 at the Juilliard School of Music. The founding members attended the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, where they studied with Professor Hideo Saito. The quartet recorded over 40 albums for Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Victor Red Seal, Angel-EMI, CBS Masterworks, and Harmonia Mundi, covering a wide range of classical music. The quartet disbanded at the end of the 2013 season, following the decision by the violist Kazuhide Isomura and the 2nd violinist Kikuei Ikeda to retire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_String_Quartet

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!