With players of this quality and experience, one approaches these two pieces with a degree of confidence which proves justified. The Mozart work, written in the mid-1780s, is the one about which he told his father, ''I consider it the best thing I have ever composed''; conversely, Beethoven's Quintet for the same combination and in the same key is a youthful piece of 1796 modelled on Mozart's, and almost by definition, the model cannot surpass the original. It's still a fine piece, though, and at its best where Beethoven's personality leaps out at us.
Barenboim and his colleagues take a spacious overall view of Mozart's Quintet. The stately introduction is poised yet affectionate and the main first movement tempo is not too fast for Allegro moderato. Of the wind soloists, Combs and Clevenger are from the Chicago Symphony and Schellenberger and Damiano from the Berlin Philharmonic: these fine artists blend beautifully and are at one stylistically. The pianist, one feels, is in overall charge and is also on good form, coaxing the music along. My only reservation here is that the recording, while doing justice to the wind instruments, takes some brightness from Barenboim's tone at dynamic levels below forte and there's a slight tubbiness to richer textures, such as those in Mozart's slow movement.
The Beethoven Quintet is even more successful. The members of this fine ensemble relish the most characteristic passages, like the bounding staccato quavers after the four-minute mark in the first movement (towards the end of the exposition) and the forceful modulations opening its development; incidentally, this Allegro, ma non troppo is taken faster than usual but works very well. This lithe yet delicately expressive playing is highly enjoyable, and so is that of the songful middle movement, where the poignant wind solos are a delight. What of comparisons? Well, Murray Perahia is even more subtle than Barenboim, and his ECO colleagues are impressive, while in the super-bargain category, Jando and his fellow Hungarians are also, as I wrote when reviewing their disc, ''altogether recommendable''. But no one should regret purchasing this new issue. '