MOZART Horn and Oboe Concertos

"The performances are highly enjoyable, with Sir Neville Marriner's polished and lively accompaniments giving pleasure in themselves" --Penguin Guide to CDs

All four of Mozart's horn concertos were written between 1782 and 1787 for his friend Ignaz Leutgeb who had retired from orchestral playing to become a cheesemonger! Leutgeb was 50 when Mozart wrote them — and he must have been quite a player. Some of the solo writing is very difficult on a modern instrument — just imagine what a challenge it must have been on the French horn of Mozart's day.

Here is some of the composer's jolliest music (the last movement of Concerto No.4 is a classical pop, so famous that it was turned into a comic song called "Ill Wind" by Flanders & Swann), but the slow movements, in contrast, are among Mozart's most poetic.

The combination of Alan Civil's full-blooded playing and Neville Marriner's lively accompaniment make this issue irresistible — and, as a bonus, there's Mozart's charming, though less well-known, oboe concerto with Neil Black as the stylish soloist.

For further recordings in this series type "philips 50" into search

Fifty years on, and the mere mention of Philips Records is still enough to conjure qualities that were first acclaimed when the long-playing vinyl record was in its infancy. In those days, the Dutch Philips label was renowned for the warmth of its recordings and the supreme musicianship of its artists, many of whom went on to achieve legendary status.