Absolutely sublime performance! All three performers are utterly magnificent. With the period piano and period clarinet, the balances are exquisite. The viola is not merely audible, but contributes most convincingly. We need more performances and recordings like this. 😀
Lovely relaxed tempo and balance. It is so good to hear the viola and clarinet as equals. There is, and was good reason for choosing this instrument combination. In so many modern instrument performances the viola is shunted away somewhere into oblivion even with the best violists. Mozart period pitch would be about 421 and this suits the work. As for the performance it couldn't be better. Total delight. Makes me look forward to my forthcoming renewal of acquaintance - with modern instruments! Maybe we can work on the balance..
wonderful smooth, clear and dark clarinet sound! Is it due to the wood (boxwood?) or any other detail of the instrument itself - beside the artisty of Mr. Schmid of course... Historic instruments were perfect in their own way. To me, there is no lack of anything.
Ja, Mein Herr Rehm, die dunklen und schattierten Töne dieser Klarinette sind ein wesentlicher Grund dafür, warum diese Aufnahme so verlockend ist! Und ja, historische Instrumente haben eine bessere Balance mit historischen Stücken, zweifellos, aber nicht alle historischen Instrumente haben so attraktive Töne wie diese drei. Fröhliche Weihnachten!
Mozart no doubt would have preferred contemporary instruments. Why do I suspect Mozart would have been into contemporary music due to the astronomic revenue potential?;,perhaps due to Alfred Einstein's biography!
+Alexander Miles I don't think you are right on that. Of course it is only my point of view, but mozart's era instruments were so clear... The pianoforte, for example... The lower registers do an excelent contrast with the higher ones... That i rarely see on modern instruments. And the winds are are so "sweet".
El Zuero, you are right about that. The instruments were fully developed in about 1500. Since then, they were changed all the time, but with every change they lost some of their beautiful sound. Listen to the old oboes, they sound sweet and with a full tone, together with the natural horns they make a wonderful sound. Todays oboes sound horrible and thin and shrill. That´s the price for having a wider range then the old oboe, that´s the price for having valves instead of holes. Or the flute. In Mozarts time, the flute was made of wood, hence the name "Woodwind instrument". Today the flute is made of metal, it can play much louder, but it sounds awful.
Well, there no real way to find out however, If Mozart were to have the modern grand piano at his disposal when he was alive, the music he would have written for that particular instrument would have been quite different indeed. If Mozart wrote the exact music for the modern grand as he did for his fotepiano well.. he would be quite a poor composer. Composers write for the instrument in question, they write for the qualities and personality traits that particular instrument has.
