An imaginatively planned disc, like a really well-conceived concert programme. Pairing the Stravinsky quartet music with the Three Pieces for solo clarinet is an excellent idea, making a substantial section that contrasts nicely with the classical items. The real novelty is the Schubert arrangement – like everything here, it’s given a colourful, persuasive performance, and the music sounds very effective in its new instrumental guise. My main reservation is that in order to write a quintet with the interest fairly evenly divided between clarinet and strings, Brian Newbould has had to manufacture dialogue by breaking up the main melodic line. (Schubert’s piano part in the original is largely an accompaniment.) This is particularly disturbing in the Adagio where it takes away from the music’s magical serenity.
I see the Allegri Quartet are credited as producers of the disc. There are, in fact, some small blemishes of tone and tuning of the kind that an alert record producer tends to spot, but, more importantly, there’s an unusually vivid sense of performance – no sitting back and taking things easily and carefully. The players forget the one-time enfant terrible status of Stravinsky, giving us an alluring range of colours and characters. In the Mozart there’s plenty of passion and vitality – the free interpretation, of the Larghetto and Minuet especially, is in strong contrast to the lively but more straightforward King/Gabrieli performance, and the bright tone and overt expression show a very different view of the work from the polished, urbane, but less emotional account by Wright and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. The recording has a nice intimate ambience with an attractive bloom to the sound.'