There are certainly
Mozart
works that could qualify for an evocation of an "abyss" of his darker days, but that is not what clarinetist and conductor
Martin Froest
is after here; the music is all on the sunny side. Instead, the booklet traces the difficult circumstances of
's last several years and also includes reflections from
Froest
on the experience of performing
in troubled times. It is all a bit hard to figure out, so perhaps it is best to turn to the music. Perhaps what put this album on classical best-seller charts in the spring of 2023 was the unorthodox quality of several of the performances in these well-trodden works. Consider the
Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551
, where
takes all the repeats except for the last one and fools substantially with the tempo and the voicings in the first two movements. One can readily hear what he is up to by sampling. His innovations leave him without a logical resolution in the big finale, which is played conventionally. The
Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504 ("Prague")
, is taken at a rapid clip indeed, as is the slow movement of the
Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622
, which can hardly be reconciled with its Adagio tempo marking. Elsewhere,
is more conventional. He is adept as a backer of singers
Elin Rombo
and
Ann Hallenberg
in the vocal pieces, and in the excerpts from
's Prague triumph,
La clemenza di Tito, K. 621
, he effectively contributes his own basset clarinet to the wind-heavy writing. He properly plays a basset clarinet in the
Clarinet Concerto
as well, and there is no doubting his mastery in this work. His conducting will be a matter of taste, but that is what sampling is for. ~ James Manheim