Andrew Palmer, Group Editor

Classical Music: Mozart: Viola Concerto & Sinfonia Concertante

W.A. Mozart: Viola Concerto & Sinfonia Concertante
Viola Concerto in A Major (after the Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K 622). Sinfonia concertante in E-Flat Major, K 364

Berliner Barock Solisten
Diyang Mei (viola)
Noah Bendix-Balgley (solo violin Sinfonia Concertante)


Sony Classical 11901408
www.sonyclassical.com


Mozart's Viola Concerto, I hear the inquisitiveness: Is there one?

Mario-Felix Vogt’s excellent liner notes set the context for this sublime recording. Traditionally speaking, the viola has always had a central role to play in the orchestra, functioning as an inner part and mediating between the violins and the lower strings, but what this meant in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in particular is that it was largely ignored as a solo instrument.

Lionel Tertis arranged Elgar's Cello Concerto for viola, and here Diyang Mei has arranged Mozart's Clarinet Concerto for the instrument, and it works brilliantly. The textures of Mei's viola and tone, which are obviously different from the solo instrument Mozart originally wrote it for, offer a sound that is no less full of colour, and the vibrato adds another dimension.

Mei's interpretation of the slow movement is divine, and his cadenza is excellent. Soloists from the Berliner Philharmoniker, an excellent ensemble founded in 1995 by Rainer Kussmaul, Raimar Orlovsky, and other members of the Berlin Philharmonic as an ensemble specialising in music of the 16th and 17th centuries, accompany Mei and the reduced forces, especially in the finale, so well, crystallising the piece and performance into a fine gem.

Violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley, first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, joins Mei for the Sinfonia Concertante, which again is given an equally superb and light interpretation, beautifully shaped and crafted with dynamics that resonate through exquisite textures.