This collection of Mozart's chamber music featuring the oboe is sufficient. All the pieces one could reasonably hope for are included: the Oboe Quartet in F major, K. 370, with the melancholy Adagio; the Quintet for violin, cello, flute, oboe, and piano in C major, K. 617, with its pastoral Allegretto Rondeau; the Oboe Sonata in F major, K. 376, with its graceful Allegretto grazioso Rondeau; the bigger and more beautiful Quintet for winds and piano, K. 452, with its concertino solo writing; even the sweet and soulful Adagio for English horn, K. 580, that is so rarely recorded. All the performances are better than one might reasonably hope for: Jeremy Polmear is a fine oboist with a lovely tone and an agile technique, and the members of the
Ambache Chamber Ensemble are in all ways his equal in elegance and enthusiasm. And the sound is as discrete and refined as the playing and the music.