The notes for the little disc, written by flutist
Sue Ann Kahn, work ideally to draw the new listener in, elegantly combining stories of the performer's personal involvement in the music with information about the music's history. It turns out that the spurious Flute Quartet in C major, K. Anh. 171, included here was her favorite when she was young, to a point where she wore out a 1962 LP containing a performance of the work. (She was distressed to learn that it was not a genuine Mozart work, but one assembled by a copyist at some point in the 1780s -- but then found out that it was largely assembled from existing Mozart music, albeit with a few alterations.) The notes respond to the music (all of it, not just the spurious piece) in some detail, and so do the performances --
Kahn begins each movement rather neutrally, without the light, sparkling quality often given Mozart's French-influenced flute works. Then each movement evolves organically and grows richer as it proceeds, with
Kahn and the other players differentiating the texture in imaginative but not unidiomatic ways. A delightful, straight-ahead chamber music performance from a country (the U.S.) where good ones have become rarer.