Mozart wrote his basset-horn trios some time in the middle or late 1780s; his widow had the manuscripts, but they disappeared without apparent trace. It was not until 1962 that, in a Musical Times article, Michael Whewell pointed out that the familiar divertimentos for two clarinets and bassoon fitted uneasily on those instruments and—since Mozart never made miscalculations—must surely have been arrangements of the 'lost' basset-horn trios. Rearranged, they work perfectly. Mozart composed four, possibly five, five-movement basset-horn trio divertimentos; the original publisher, wanting the conventional six, made up an extra one based on favourite numbers from Mozart's operas. The present LP gives Nos. 1, 3 and the extra one, No. 6; I hope these skilful players will favour us with another record containing Nos. 2, 4 and the slightly odd No. 5.
Who would think that there were 101 ways of writing for three basset-horns? Well, Mozart shows that there are—at least. The range of expression he extracts from this slightly unpromising ensemble goes far beyond the ''watery melancholy'' that Bernard Shaw wrote of in characterizing the instrument. There are lively, ingenious little sonata-type first movements (that of No. 3 begins like the Kleine Nachtmusik), minuets and trios second and fourth, with brief but pensive slow movements in between and jolly rondos to end with. There are quite a lot of typical Mozart touches, like the minor-key trio in No. 3, with its expressive chromatics, or the witty little dialogue between the two lower instruments in the development of the first movement of No. 1. The players here, using modern instruments, give very capable, assured performances, well tuned and with accurate ensemble, and they make the most of Mozart's incredible ingenuity of texture. I do not quite like their habit of making breaks in the rhythm between sections in a rondo, which chops up these small-scale pieces too much; they do the same in two or three other places, for example in the movement in No. 6 based on ''Non piu andrai''. The first movement of No. 3 seems a shade unstable once or twice, and in the last the third basset-horn plays bar 10 a third too low. Of the opera pieces, taken from Figaro or Don Giovanni, all are quite entertaining, perhaps ''L0a ci darem'' most of all. The divertimentos, by the way, are in F major, not B flat as the sleeve asserts: the clarinet versions are in B flat, but the basset-horn ones are in that instrument's natural home key, a fourth lower. A good, clean recording.'