Mozart Serenades - Manchester Evening News

Good to see that some people are still playing rare Mozart, after the orgy of completism over his works last year - but this collection of his lighter music does raise questions about the attractiveness of an undiluted diet of such things.

The redeeming features are the Rondo Concertante and Divertimento at the end (particularly the latter), which are highly inventive and listenable pieces of music, and the quality and verve of the SCO's playing, which lifts even the inconsequential music on to a plane of entertainment value at least. Several of these pieces are from Mozart's Salzburg years, and Alexander Janiczek, associated with Camerata Salzburg, is clearly the man to lead the SCO in them.

The Divertimento in E flat is notable for being the first example we have of Mozart writing for the then new-fangled clarinet.