It is surprising how rare this apt coupling is of Mozart’s three concertos for reed instruments. Christoph von Dohnanyi and the Cleveland Orchestra here follow up their series of late Mozart symphonies (10/93) with an impressive showcase disc with soloists to match the characteristically immaculate ensemble of this superb orchestra. I understand that Messrs Mack, Cohen and McGill are Cleveland woodwind principals, but sadly no information is provided about them in the booklet, surely a mistake if full credit is to be given to the orchestra.
As they are members of the orchestra, I have chosen for my comparisons two very different sets of recordings which equally feature soloists from great orchestras. DG gathered these three concertos together on a mid-price reissue of the versions recorded by Karl Bohm and the Vienna Philharmonic (8/90), though that is currently listed only as a cassette. Otherwise my main comparisons have been with the recordings made for ASV by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Alexander Schneider, Paavo Berglund and Sandor Vegh conducting. They have been collected on two separate CDs on which the Clarinet and Oboe Concertos are generously coupled with the Sinfonia concertante for wind, and the Bassoon Concerto is coupled with the Flute Concerto No. 1 and the Flute and Harp Concerto.
Those comparisons have amply confirmed my original impression that for all the mastery and polish of Franklin Cohen in the Clarinet Concerto and of John Mack in the oboe work, they remain very much members of the orchestra under the conductor rather than soloists leading the pack. Even when Cohen after a longer cadential link than usual in the slow movement of the Clarinet Concerto adds elaborate decorations to the reprise of the main theme, and then slips in deliciously naughty ornamentation at various points in the finale, one hardly registers daring or a sense of fun. Despite those adventures this is a rather straight-faced reading, which has one admiring perfection rather than responding to individuality. So too in the Oboe Concerto, in which John Mack uses unusually long and elaborate cadenzas, which sound as though they are being read off the page rather than being played as though in improvisation. This is sober rather than sparkling Mozart.
I don’t want to exaggerate any shortcoming, for these are superb performances, beautifully recorded, which will give a great deal of enjoyment. Yet I am encouraged to underline the point, when the bassoonist, David McGill, in the third work instantly establishes the sort of individual expressiveness I find in the COE and Vienna performances. His cadenzas too are unusually long, but he uses them with flair and a natural sense of display, and when in the slow movement he chooses a speed more flowing than in the equivalent movements of the other works, you feel it is very much his choice rather than Dohnanyi’s. As I say, as a coupling this is apt and rare, and whatever the detailed points of criticism, it offers a superb demonstration of Cleveland’s continuing greatness.'