This is rich-toned Mozart playing, recorded in the warm and very reverberant acoustic of the Salle de Castillo in the Swiss town of Vevey on Lake Geneva. But it is relaxed to the point of being laid-back, something which one notices throughout the opening D major Divertimento, and those who like their Mozart to have a bit of bite will find this a good deal less than ideal: even the final Presto in this piece sounds somehow easygoing although the tempo is brisk enough, and undoubtedly the cushioned, not to say cosy, sound that is produced by the hall itself and a largish body of players contributes to this effect.
In the other works played we have more of the same, and I must confess that my initial enjoyment diminished rapidly as I began to feel surfeited with too much sweetness, as if I was greedily eating jam and cream cakes; furthermore, the March that begins the Serenata notturna is slow in pace as well as being heavy and thick in sound, while the Minuet which follows sounds simply obese in texture and gait, and lasts 4'23'' as against Sir Colin Davis's 3'50'' (Novalis/ASV).
The posthorn player in the next work is Crispian Steele-Perkins and I enjoyed this performance rather more, but still found it less stylish than the alternative accounts listed above. Oddly enough, the two little Marches that end the programme have a sharper focus, though here, too, the orchestra sounds too big and heavy for such music. In Davis's Novalis programme, the drum sound in the Serenata notturna is too resonant. Otherwise that recording is good and the playing has the right kind of spring to it and a real freshness in such a movement as the Rondeau in the Posthorn Serenade (the fourth movement of seven) with its woodwind solos; and there's splendidly refined string playing as well in the beautiful D minor Andantino which follows and which under Menuhin sounds ordinary. Sir Charles Mackerras (Telarc/Conifer) also handles this latter work well, but his recording with the Prague Chamber Orchestra is a bit boomy and although he is always stylish, Davis makes the music still more beautiful (again, the Andantino provides a good example of the style, which is cooler here but elegant). I would add that James Levine and the Vienna Philharmonic (DG) are a shade pompous and prosaic, and that the violin sound has an edge to it which could tire the ear.'