The sequence of top-notch recordings from Britain's Onyx label continues with this pairing of Mozart's two ambitious serenades for winds, the Gran Partita in B flat major, K. 361, and the strangely grim Serenade in C minor, K. 388. One unusual feature of this recording by the London Winds, led by clarinetist
Michael Collins, is that the players disregard Mozart's specifically scored double bass part in the Gran Partita, replacing the double bass with a contrabassoon. Their argument is that the contrabassoon hadn't yet been technically perfected in the 1780s, and that Mozart would have wanted it if he could have had it -- he did use one in the Masonic Funeral Music, but only in a very simple texture. The change is noticeable but, with the bottom line providing mostly harmonic support in textures involving the whole crowd of 13 winds, not enormously important. Aside from the contrabassoon novelty, these are finely crafted, rather restrained performances of these serenades. The recording of the Gran Partita is preferable; the London Winds' textures are impressively transparent, and they catch both the grace of the dance movements and the awesomely calm, radiant sunset that is the first Adagio (track 3). It is not necessary to squawk painfully through the Serenade in C minor, but there is a tense undercurrent to the work that the London Winds do not quite do justice to. Those who would prefer a more intense take on these big Mozart pieces should try the recent recording by the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, but the Gran Partita on this disc is a quiet, intimate experience to be cherished.