Classical home listening - Mozart, mambo, Miss Julie and more

The Guardian 0

Sarah Willis has a ball in Havana, William Alwyn’s opera grips, and John Wilson and co run riot with Respighi

• Cuban musicians have an ability to switch from classical to jazz to salsa with a chameleon versatility the rest of us can only envy. No boundaries, no inhibitions and a sense of rhythm that sets them free. Arming herself with bags of flair and a passion for the country and its music, British horn player Sarah Willis has joined forces with young Cuban colleagues to make an exuberant disc: Mozart y Mambo (Alpha Classics). Willis’s generous musicianship is stamped on this entire project, in which Mozart (the E flat horn concerto, K447, and the single movements K370b and K371) and mambo are gloriously joined at the hip.