Yet another collection of Mozart horn concertos, but this one has the singular advantage of including the Concert Rondo, K371 which actually pre-dates the four concertos. It was left with the orchestration unfinished, but was completed by Barry Tuckwell, who holds the view that it was abandoned because the solo writing proved too complex for the hand horn. Radovan Vlatkovic plays it with a captivatingly light touch and it is a very real bonus. He was born in Zagreb and is principal horn of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. Readers seeing the obviously Eastern European name might anticipate that his style of playing would be heavily laden with vibrato. That is not so. There is just a hint, occasionally, applied judiciously and mostly in the cadenzas, and it is entirely beneficial. His tone is full, resounding its lower harmonics more strikingly than a British player would seek to do, but the articulation has such finesse, and the phrasing is so fluently musical, that one responds readily to the different style.
He has an ideal partner in Jeffrey Tate, famous for his recordings of the late Mozart symphonies, but here lightening his approach to produce strings that sparkle and dance in the allegros, and have a light, gracious elegance in the lyrical music. The performances are full of imaginative touches: the slow movement Romanze of K447 is paced a little more deliberately than usual, but the firm yet flexible solo line is answered so sympathetically by the strings, that the dialogue is given a beguiling naturalness and inevitability. The opening movement of No. 1, too, is particularly successful in its interplay, while all the rondos are full of character.
The recording balance is first rate and altogether this is a most winning set of performances. The timbre of the soloist may be different, but Radovan Vlatkovic, emerges as an outstanding player, and this EMI record can be cordially welcomed on all counts.'