MOZART W.A. TRIO FOR CLARINET, VIOLA AND PIANO, QUINTET FOR CLARINET AND STRING QUARTET

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

1.-.3 Trio for Clarinet, Viola and Piano in E flat Kegelstatt-Trio K 498

4.-7. Quaintet for Clarinet and String Qaurtet in A K 581

Pascal Moragues clarinet

Frank Braley piano

Vladimír Mendelssohn viola

Pražák Qaurtet

This CD associates two chamber masterpieces that Mozart dedicated to Anton Stadler, his "brother" in his masonic lodge. The famous "Skittle trio" which is said to have been written within no more than the time of a skittle game is a divertimento, curiously starting with a sweetly soothing andante, followed by a minuetto, modulating in G minor, and ending with a rondo, tender and poetical, highlighting the similarities in tone of the clarinet and the viola. Written three years later, the Quintet, as the forthcoming concerto K 622, exploits all the resources of the clarinet, particularly its low register, and offers, in the second larghetto one of the most beautiful nocturnal songs ever written, sublime effusion of melody played by the clarinet over strings con sordino.

(Praga Digitals)