Composer: Benjamin Britten, Jean Françaix, Stuart Oliver Knussen, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Robert Schumann
Performer: Nicholas Daniel, Britten Oboe Quartet
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalogue: 7672DI
Release: 2017
Size: 728 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Mozart: Oboe Quartet in F major, K370
01. I. Allegro
02. II. Adagio
03. III. Rondo
04. Mozart: Adagio for Cor Anglais and String Trio, K580a
05. Britten: Phantasy Quartet for Oboe & String Trio, Op. 2
06. Knussen: Cantata
Françaix: Quartet for English Horn, Violin, Viola and Cello
07. I. Allego vivace
08. II. Andante tranquillo
09 .III. Vivo assai
10. IV. Andantino
11. V. Allegro giocoso
12. Schumann: Mondnacht (No. 5 from Liederkreis, Op. 39)
The quartet give a wonderfully relaxed and refined account of the Mozart and a strikingly mysterious one of the Britten…Between the two, Daniel inserts his own completion of a Mozart fragment…In this version, it becomes a perfect encore piece.
The Britten Oboe Quartet here makes its recording debut with a programme of its core repertory. It naturally includes the great Mozart Quartet K.370 and Britten’s own Phantasy Op.2, but also two pieces that have a special resonance for the distinguished oboist Nicholas Daniel, because they were commissioned and premiered by Janet Craxton (1929-81), his ‘beloved teacher’ and inspiration, and her London Oboe Quartet. Thus Oliver Knussen’s Cantata (1977) and the delightful Cor Anglais Quartet of Jean Françaix add further variety to a fascinating anthology that also features Nicholas Daniel’s own completion of Mozart’s elegiac fragment K580a.