If we omit what Grove calls ''doubtful and spurious'' works, Mozart's violin concertos are five in number and date from 1775 or shortly before, when the composer was still just in his teens. Compared to those for piano, which amount to nearly 30 and span his whole career (though all the well-known ones are post-1775), they are therefore usually accorded less importance. Nevertheless, they are attractive and varied pieces, very well written for the soloist. After all, Mozart was the son of a violinist and played the instrument well, and although he seems to have written them for another soloist, he probably also performed them himself.
The first four concertos each last around 20 minutes, while the fifth is significantly bigger at 30. In any case, only three will fit on to a disc, and both these issues include the final A major Concerto which is doubtless the most rewarding of all, as well as the sunny G major, No. 3. They part company over their third choice, though as it happens both Nos. 2 and 4 are in D major. Those who care about such things may like to notice, however, that the EMI order is G, D, A whereas the RCA disc has A, G, D. On balance, the former seems to me more natural in that it keeps the three last concertos in order and has keys neatly corresponding to the ascending open strings of the violin.
But what of the performances? There's much to praise in both. The EMI issue has warm, detailed sound that suits the music well, and the soloist and the orchestra are, to my mind, beautifully balanced in that they integrate without the soloist being overshadowed. Jorg Faerber's Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra is a stylish body of musicians, too. What I particularly like here, however, is Frank Peter Zimmermann's violin playing. He is well in tune and has a sweetly Italianate tone that offers melting beauty in slow movements but still has the energy (without roughness) that is necessary in outer ones. There's wit as well as warmth in both the finale of the D major Concerto and the minuet plus mock-Turkish music finale of the A major. We are not told what instrument he plays, but it is a good one and the G string sounds delightfully rich, particularly in the second subject of the first movement of K218 (at 2'56''). The cadenzas by Beyer and Joachim are, as so often the case in these works, larger than life (over two minutes in the first movement of K218) but acceptable. These performances won praise when they first appeared and this is a valuable reissue.
The Moscow Virtuosi's disc has their founder-director Vladimir Spivakov as the soloist. The A major Concerto was recorded in Paris in 1988 and the other two concertos in Munich over a year later in April 1990, but the sound is consistent enough, as indeed is the playing style. Spivakov takes a bolder view than Zimmermann, with the music more consciously projected and the soloist further forward, but there is nothing wrong with that and some listeners will probably prefer it. His recording is brighter, too, although it has sufficient smoothness and richness. However, there is, to my mind, a significant psychological differ- ence between listening in a concert-hall and listening at home, and for that reason I would turn more readily on record to the greater intimacy of Zimmermann while acknowledging that Spivakov and his players also do a fine job with this music. The Russian soloist knows how to shape a phrase and to articulate with point and wit; the opening of the finale in the A major Concerto is a case in point, but there are numerous other happy instances of the same good qualities. The slow movement of the G major Concerto is silkily shaped, too, and the quasi-Turkish music of the A major has great elan. Again, though, the cadenzas Spivakov plays (by Joachim in K219 and his own elsewhere) have that touch of narcissism created by the feeling that the soloist wants to show off his double-stopping and register-changing and play alone for as long as possible! Nevertheless, that is not a major criticism, and even if it were, it would apply to both violinists. One could be happy, indeed, to have both these discs on one's shelves, noting, too, that they are generously filled.'