“I hope more [recordings] from the same group are on the way”, wrote the late Roger Fiske after enjoying the Ambache Chamber Ensemble’s coupling of Mozart’s E flat Quartet for piano and wind and the slightly earlier of his two piano quartets (Meridian, 10/86). Now, after a ten-year gap, they have returned to the fray with three works in which Diana Ambache herself leaves us in no doubt whatsoever of Mozart’s tireless keyboard invention. Her playing has pinpoint precision within its flawless fluency, all of it underpinned by unshakeable stability of rhythm. The four instruments are reproduced with the truly ‘natural’ sound of which Meridian are justly proud. But even when I was only 53 seconds into the first movement of the opening E flat Piano Quartet (when the violin takes up the second subject), I began to suspect that balance was slightly weighed against the strings – certainly more against the violin (a 1723 Guarnerius) than Andrew Shulman’s lovely old cello. The Piano Trio confirmed my feeling that the keyboard was a little too forwardly placed. Things nevertheless improve in the G major Sonata for violin and piano, for which we’re told that Adrian Levine changes to a 1735 Guarnerius known as the “d’Egville”.
In terms of general style the group’s Mozart comes across with an exceptional classical purity of expression. No forebodings of romantic daring are allowed to undermine their world of well-ordered finesse. As time went on I confess to wanting something just a little more spontaneous, a little more personally inflected – not least from the pianist. But this was probably my own fault for listening to all eight major-key movements at one sitting. Rest assured that if taken singly each work will yield infinitely more to enjoy than to question.'