Listeners may go through several stages of reaction as they make their way through this traversal of the often-paired clarinet quintets by Mozart and Brahms, which have enough structural parallels to justify at least the guess that Brahms had the earlier piece in his head as he worked. The opening movement of the Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581, with its simple 5-3-2-1 theme exploding almost immediately into unsuspected complications in a very Brahmsian way, is handled with great sensitivity and precision. ...
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Listeners may go through several stages of reaction as they make their way through this traversal of the often-paired clarinet quintets by Mozart and Brahms, which have enough structural parallels to justify at least the guess that Brahms had the earlier piece in his head as he worked. The opening movement of the Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581, with its simple 5-3-2-1 theme exploding almost immediately into unsuspected complications in a very Brahmsian way, is handled with great sensitivity and precision. Maximiliano Martín's clarinet in the slow movement, however, has floated more sweetly and ethereally above the string quartet in other recordings. The rhythmic varieties of the minuet in the third movement are effectively displayed, but the Badke Quartet lets Martín down with a colorless performance of the "weeping" A minor variation that is so surprising in the right hands. One can quibble about the Brahms Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, as well; it lacks the surface of Viennese...
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