As their clarinettist Dieter Klocker describes in his notes, there was so much casual music-making in and around Salzburg in the late eighteenth century as to leave a vast corpus of little-known music awaiting discovery by such enterprising groups as the Consortium Classicum. No one nowadays, including Klocker, pretends that all is Mozart, though attempts have been made in the past: eager hands have sought to ascribe the two anonymous pieces here recorded to Salzburg's greatest son. This does no one any service. No listener can seriously think that these amiable little morsels are really Mozart, and the idea that they might be merely prevents one from enjoying their modest charms in a relaxed manner. The so-called Sextett-Parthia is mostly rather feebler than the E flat Sextet and is chiefly remarkable for including an Andante whose opening strain is exactly the same as the melody sung to Heine's words by Germans as they round the Loreley's rock on Rhine boat trips, ''Ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten...''.
Perhaps the best of the other pieces is the Divertimento by Michael Haydn, Joseph's much overshadowed brother. This is no masterpiece, but the bright, breezy Allegro, the steadily pacing Andante, and the urgent, somewhat disturbing hunting finale all betoken a composer who had immense talent if not his brother's genius. Wolfl's agreeable little Sextet is given a slightly more spacious acoustic, which it needs rather less than the substantial Octet by Assmayer, which has some splendid horn writing that the Consortium players greatly relish.
However, there is rather greater interest in the Serenade by Neukomm, who lived from 1778 to 1858. It seems that he wrote it in Salzburg in 1796: without this knowledge, I would have given it a later date, for it includes some striking anticipations of a more romantic manner. There is quite a serious opening Adagio, introducing a tense, almost symphonic Allegro: indeed, the composer suggests this comparison in his marking to the score. The elegant Andantino is beautifully written for the instruments, who set off at a gallop in the finale led by Klocker himself. This is great fun, to wind up a most enjoyable piece.
The whole record, which is nicely recorded and presented, is at the very least happy background music; at the most, it provides some very easygoing musical pleasures for relaxed listening.'