Output details

CD recording of Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A K581, Quintet fragments K581a, K580b, K516c (in completions by Robert Levin and Franz Beyer)

This recording restores to its original colours some of the most searching of Mozart’s chamber music, while at the same time providing stylistic comparison of the Clarinet Quintet with preparatory sketches for the medium, of which this is the first complete recording. The distinctive colours of the original instruments greatly expand the tonal palette, demonstrating the radically different tone-colours of A, B flat and C clarinets by comparison with their modern counterparts. The disc’s originality and significance also lies in its adherence to historical principles rather than practical expediency. The performance style is rooted in primary evidence, especially Leopold Mozart’s Violinschule; it is also informed by the depth of professional experience from period orchestras contained within the ensemble. The recording sheds light on the influence of Mozart’s clarinettist friend and fellow freemason Anton Stadler and (even more significantly) upon his own compositional method.

Various difficulties relating to the Mozart texts (including K581) were assimilated and resolved. The only previous performing version of the Allegro K581a was the anachronistic 1870 completion by Otto Bach, but Lawson was able to work with Robert Levin to produce this world première recording of the present version. Instruments were modelled on Viennese specimens in the Shackleton Collection (similar in design to RCM Museum 242), precisely the type and pedigree of instrument known to Mozart. During the course of preparations, matters of balance and temperament were refined over a considerable period, together with strategies for ornamentation and decoration of melodic lines. Lawson leads a discussion of the fragment K580b at www.clarinetclassics.com/videos.

The CD benefits from the Naxos global distribution network reflecting the current international interest in performance practice, historical styles and period instruments. Excerpts from the disc have been broadcast on national radio stations and it reached No. 17 in the Specialist Classical Charts.