Mozart – Clarinet Concerto K622, Sinfonia Concertante K364 (APE)

Performer: De Peyer, David Oistrakh, Igor Oistrakh
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Peter Maag, Kyril Knodrashin
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Audio CD
SPARS Code: A-D
Number of Discs: 1
Format: APE (image+cue)
Label: Polygram Records
Size: 285 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes

01. Clarinet Concerto in A, K.622 – 1. Allegro
02. Clarinet Concerto in A, K.622 – 2. Adagio
03. Clarinet Concerto in A, K.622 – 3. Rondo (Allegro)
04. Sinfonia concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E flat, K.364 – 1. Allegro maestoso
05. Sinfonia concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E flat, K.364 – 2. Andante
06. Sinfonia concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E flat, K.364 – 3. Presto

The de Peyer/Maag clarinet concerto is also available on

…an excellent Double Decca set of the Mozart Wind concerti which excludes the Sinfonia Concertante for Winds k297b (see my review). Both performances here deserve five stars. Ditto the same coupling with Szell/Cleveland/Sony, but for different reasons, I believe. Szell and Maag conduct the concerto impeccably, but Robert Marcellus is not quite
as exciting and virtuosic as de Peyer, who is equally sensitive to the darker, more elegiac aspects of the concerto. de Peyer also employs a deeper, more plangent tone than Marcellus, similar to that of George Pieterson in his superb Mozart Clarinet Quintet. Neither soloist employs a basset clarinet, for which I recommend Thea King/Tate/Hyperion (coupled with the Clarinet Concerto.

In the Sinfonia Concertante K364, I prefer Szell’s bouyant conducting, transparent textures and slightly quicker
tempi to those of Kiril Kondrashin and the Moscow Philharmonic. However, the Oistrakhs as a team and especially David
individually play stunningly, with great poetry and bravura. Would that Oistrakh have recorded the Beethoven Violin
sonatas with Richter or Gilels rather than Lev Oboriin. That David and Igor are soul mates is quite clear in this recording.