Mozart himself wrote enthusiastically to his father of his Quintet, K452: ''I myself consider it to be the best work I have ever composed, it's written for one oboe, one clarinet, one horn, one bassoon and the piano''. It appears that his listing of the instruments was needed simply because this ensemble was a novelty. But with what mastery he used it! And it seems to have provided the model for Beethoven's piece written a dozen years later, for not only are the key and overall shape similar but it has been suggested that the younger man composed it for a group of Prague wind players with whom he performed it together with Mozart's work.
As the list of alternatives above reminds us these two works make a natural coupling, just as they did in LP format in the case of the Decca issue with Ashkenazy. In CD terms, it is of course less generous, but 52–53 minutes is acceptable enough if artistic criteria are fully satisfied. Nimbus were bold in bringing together the veteran Vlado Perlemuter, born in 1904, with the youthful Albion Ensemble in their recording dating from 1981. The result has some success, for theirs is pleasant playing, but it does not have quite' the sense of forward movement and spontaneity in the quicker music that one would like and at times rather falls into a 'beat-by-beat' effect. Still, there is a gentleness about this approach that has its own kind of attractiveness. Perlemuter who somehow seems to dictate the way things should go, is generally pleasingly eloquent and is heard (for example) to good effect in the solo that opens Mozart's Andante cantabile and in the corresponding movement of the Beethoven. If it all seems a bit low voltage for music composed by two brilliant keyboard players then in their twenties, it is perhaps music that can take this kind of interpretation.
The Nimbus piano sound is more recessed than in the case of the Decca, where Ashkenazy's playing has more attack and brilliance. This Decca performance has much to commend it, as the names of the artists suggest, though the Largo introduction to the first movement of the Mozart sounds perhaps a trace too earnest and this over-seriousness is sometimes a feature elsewhere. The Beethoven goes nicely enough, but I hope I do not sound too grudging in saying that it sounds like the competent music-making of fine professionals but fails to go beyond that. The recording is clear and nicely balanced and on these grounds it does not show its now fairly considerable age. Unfortunately, however, there is what for most CD collectors will be a wholly unacceptable level of hiss that is not amenable to adjustments of the tone controls.
To sum up, therefore, neither of these issues strikes me as very competitive though each has clear merits. Among the alternatives, Brendel and his fellow artists on Philips are fine, though closely recorded; and I also admire the occasionally perhaps over-refined Lupu (also Decca)—but his recording lets us hear too much clicky woodwind keywork. Both these accounts of the two works are effective, but the agreeably straightforward yet alert performances by Perahia and his colleagues on CBS are those I would choose to live with, a little background noise notwithstanding.'