Three Mozart piano concertos with a string quintet replacing the orchestra sounds an odd idea, but Robin Golding's booklet-note quotes a letter from the composer to his father referring to the possibility of these works being played ''merely a quattro'' as an alternative to using a full orchestral body. The sound is both pleasing and surprising, and fuller than one might expect, not least because Peter Frankl joins in the tutti passages discreetly but positively; the presence of a double-bass supporting the cello also helps considerably in giving the string sound more body. In fact, it is probably fair to say that this does not sound like chamber music even though only six performers are involved, although this doubtless has something to do with the nature of the music as well, and with the texture and bloom of the recording.
What of the performances? Well, Frankl is an established Mozartian, at home in this repertory, and the playing as led by him on a modern piano, probably as a first among equals, is clear, fresh and secure. If there are few touches of exquisite refinement, he and his expert colleagues might well say that these works are not the place for hothouse poetry. I would call this playing thoroughly enjoyable but not magical, without intending that qualification to imply a diminution of praise. But a point of contention must still be whether performing these three concertos with a string quintet is a useful alternative to piano and orchestra, or merely an interesting and fairly successful experiment. I must say that I incline to the latter view, but again it is only right to remember Mozart's letter quoted above. Robin Golding concludes from this that the composer thought of these works as capable of being ''performed domestically'', but as I have suggested, they do not sound intimate enough for real chamber music and it seems to me that such performance would always be a faute de mieux.
Investment in this generously-filled CD will allow you to make up your own mind; it is well recorded, although the close sound means that, for all the players' control, we do not get much really soft tone, though we come near to it in the Andante of the A major Concerto, a work which receives a particularly good performance.'