Mozart - Chamber Music Vol 1

The Guardian 80

Ensemble DeNote
(Devine)

An outcome of Ensemble DeNote’s innovative, performance presentation interactive Mozart Project Live!, this fine collection of three varied works from the 1780s sheds light on Mozart’s effortless originality. There’s the Violin Sonata, K454, where we know Mozart accompanied the soloist without actually having written out the piano part; then the unusually scored “Kegelstatt” Trio for clarinet, viola and piano, which is far too subtle for even Mozart to have written during a game of skittles; and finally the titanic Piano Quartet in G minor, a masterpiece. Superbly inflected performances by these period-instrument specialists bring gorgeously subtle colouring, with John Irving’s fortepiano (underbalanced in the quartet?) and Jane Booth’s clarinet outstanding.