COMPOSERS: Cannbich
LABELS: Chandos
ALBUM TITLE: Cannbich
WORKS: Symphony in G; Symphony in A; Symphony in E flat; Symphony in C; Symphony in D
PERFORMER: London Mozart Players/ Matthias Barmert
CATALOGUE NO: CHAN 10379
Christian Cannabich was director of
the Mannheim court orchestra – a
band famous for its iron discipline,
and for the ‘rocketing’ themes and
suspenseful crescendos exploited by
the composers who wrote for it. He
became a close friend of Mozart, who
gave piano lessons to his talented
daughter; and while Leopold Mozart
was scathing about Cannabich,
whom he called a ‘miserable
symphonic hack’, Mozart himself
rated his compositional abilities
more highly.
Each of the five symphonies
recorded here throws the spotlight on
a different pair of wind instruments
– either flutes, oboes or clarinets.
The imperious initial chords of
the Symphony in E flat major
anticipate the beginnings of one or
two of Mozart’s clarinet-imbued
works in the same key, though the
remainder of Cannabich’s piece is
undistinguished. A few moments
from the remaining works stay in
the mind – the athletic horn parts
in the minuet from the G major
Symphony of 1760; the gentle A
minor melancholy of the Andante
from the A major – but for the rest,
the music serves mainly as a reminder
of how infinitely greater Mozart and
Haydn were. As in the previous issues
of Chandos’s ‘Contemporaries of
Mozart’ series, Matthias Bamert and
the London Mozart Players provide
polished and stylish performances.
Misha Donat