Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble & Trevor Pinnock - Mozart: Gran Partita - Sid's Classical Reviews

Rating: 5/5

A cracking disc

I really like this disc. I'm naturally inclined toward it anyway because I love Trevor Pinnock's work almost without exception, and his excellent cycle of Mozart Symphonies is a staple of my collection, but it stands on its own merits.

Here Pinnock directs the finest crop of musicians from the Royal Academy Of Music on the colossal Gran Partita for winds. It's a terrific work, full of playfulness and, especially in the Adagio made famous in Peter Schaffer's Amadeus, it also has real depth and beauty. It's all there in this recording; to my ears Pinnock brings lovely performances from his ensemble and lends the whole disc his immense depth of understanding and long, long love of this music. The much smaller Notturno by Haydn which concludes the disc was unfamiliar to me, but it turns out to be a little Haydn jewel - the sort of perfect, delightful piece he so often gave us.

It's a lovely programme, excellently performed and beautifully recorded by Linn (of course.) I love this for its warmth, energy and insight and I can recommend it very warmly.