Here is one of the best Mozart issues I have heard for some while, with bright and attractive performances of three early symphonies, crisply articulated and yet never lacking lyricism even in the quicker movements. In these the composer's use of the wind section is often what most strikes the listener, particularly that of horns and oboes together, though in the finale of Symphony No. 32 (the one which is played first) trumpets are prominent too, bringing a charmingly festive air to the music. The finale of No. 33 is a delight too, played with joyous but stylish elan. The strings of the English Sinfonia sound as if they are a smallish body, but that is not intended as a criticism and they sing most fetchingly (yet without mannerism) in slow movements and elsewhere too where cantabile tone is the order.
Lack of mannerism is, indeed, a feature throughout; Sir Charles Groves gets the balance right between 'just playing the notes' and narcissistic lingerings and tonal preciosities. He judges tempos well, too, how good, for example, to hear the Allegro moderato of Symphony No. 29 presented with poise and delicacy (tenderness, even) as well as energy—on Philips, Marriner rather bustles through it—though perhaps the Andante that follows is too leisurely. This desirable midprice issue also has a well-written and informative booklet note from Robert Dearling. The recording comes from two sessions in EMI's Abbey Road, London studios and is clear yet with just enough atmosphere to suggest a smallish but expert and well led band in rococo surroundings. (Having already got this far in my review, I now notice with pleasure that IM thought very highly of an earlier Pickwick recording of Mozart symphonies by the same artists in the identical location PCD892, 9/88).
Marriner and his Academy of St Martin in the Fields play skilfully but rather anonymously in Symphony No. 29, where there is more colour to be found in the music: their Andante sounds hardly more than the routine playing of fine instrumentalists and the sound is a little unfocused. Mackerras and the Prague Chamber Orchestra on Telarc/Conifer give us skill too and more character, but I still prefer the new Pickwick issue from the very start of the work, where Mackerras is quiet and neat but Groves radiant, while in the Andante Mackerras is oddly military in his purposeful bass. In No. 32, Jeffrey Tate and the ECO on EMI are too earnest in tone: the first movement is emphatically not spiritoso, especially if that word can mean ''witty'' as my Italian dictionary says it can, and the finale is no more so. I like Marriner and the ASMF (also EMI) better than in No. 29, but still find Groves more characterful and naturally spacious in the outer movements. Last but not least, Symphony No. 33: here I like Tate and the ECO (again EMI) much more than in No. 32, for their momentum and shape in the outer movements as well as the fine horn playing (though does it stand out too much?), but in the Andante moderato they seem a little heavy compared to the performance on the new Pickwick issue.'