COMPOSERS: Mozart
LABELS: Claves
WORKS: Oboe Concerto CK314; Oboe Concerto FK313; Oboe Concerto FK293; Andante in CK315
PERFORMER: Ingo Goritzki (oboe)Polish Chamber Philharmonic/Wojciech Rajski
CATALOGUE NO: CD 50-9302 DDD
This disc consists of the following: (1) Mozart's 'real' Oboe Concerto in C, K314; (2) Mozart's Flute Concerto in G, K313, transposed down to F major with the solo part given to the oboe; (3) Andante in C for flute and orchestra, K315, with the solo part given to the oboe; and (4) the unfinished Oboe Concerto in F, K293, completed by Robert D Levin.
It was not until the Thirties that the late Bernhard Paumgartner discovered a contemporary manuscript of the first work on this CD, scored for oboe solo and not flute. Research soon confirmed that this version was in fact Mozart's original and that he later adapted it for flute to fulfil a commission from a rich Dutchman named De Jean or Dejean. The soloist Ingo Goritzki, a musician with considerable scholarly knowledge, thinks it possible that works (2) and (3) may have been conceived for the oboe, and, while it is possible to play (3) widiout transposing the music, this was impossible for (2), which had to be put down a whole tone. Actually, these manipulations sound very persuasive, and, in any case, Goritzki is only following a typical 18th-century tradition, ie, changing solo parts (Handel often did just this trick himself). On the other hand, the fourth item is a first recording and the reconstruction of this opening movement is characteristically brilliant. (Levin's reconstruction of Mozart's Requiem was noted in our November 1992 edition.) The scoring of the orchestral accompaniment to the unfinished Oboe Concerto is subtle: pairs of clarinets, bassoons and horns, with the usual strings (it is possible that Mozart had in mind the Mannheim orchestra, because the watermarks of the manuscript suggest the period immediately following his Paris sojourn of 1778).
Goritzki is a marvellous musician and the accompaniments are beautifully realised. The CD was recorded in a church in Gdansk Warmly recommended. HC Bobbins London