These are warm performances, richly recorded in Blackheath Concert Hall, London, by Decca's very experienced producer Ray Minshull. Joshua Bell's playing is expressive and admirably fluent, and Mozart's varying technical demands are well within his grasp. If with all this I feel less than carried away, it is because there is an element of romantic blandness about these performances with sound quality to match: at any point, it is agreeable enough, yet spontaneity is missing and the effect is oddly cosy. Joshua Bell's own first-movement cadenzas go on too long for my liking and seem designed less to complement the music than to show off his own undoubted bravura and sweet tone (he plays a 1732 Stradivarius called the ''Tom Taylor'').
Slow movements such as the Adagio of the G major Concerto and the E major Adagio are too sugary to retain classical poise—a case of gilding the lily. On the other hand, the slow violin entry in the first movement of the A major Concerto has an Elysian beauty. If you like your Mozart violin concertos this way, representing an idealized world complete with simpering rococo cherubs, you should enjoy this disc, but if you are in doubt you would be wise to sample before purchasing (Cho-Liang Lin on CBS offers a 'cooler' alternative). The recording balance is pleasingly natural, placing the soloist among the other players rather than having him separately spotlit.'