The
Chamber Orchestra of Europe is an ensemble of top young musicians originally formed at the 1980 Salzburg Festival and successful enough that it turned into an ongoing enterprise. The group recorded often, with various mentors as conductors, and has been reissuing selected recordings on its Coe label after passing its 25th-anniversary milestone.
Mozart has been a staple of the group's repertory, and it does him justice. The three concertos here were apparently recorded at different times and places (although the dual booklets each contain the same history of the orchestra, neither finds room for information on recording date or place). The "it slices, it dices" philosophy is rarely a helpful one when it comes to classical recordings, but the grouping of three
Mozart wind concertos is reasonable. (By the way, the Sinfonia Concertante "for wind" billed on the back cover sounds pretty avant-garde but is really just an editorial error.) The orchestra's sound in
Mozart is warm, coordinated, and transparent. There are two different conductors here;
Paavo Berglund gives the Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314, a striking wavelike feeling in the opening movement, while veteran
Alexander Schneider offers a brisk Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major, K. 297, and a careful, detailed Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622, that lets the soloist provide the lyricism. Most remarkable are the young soloists, all striving to make a mark.
Douglas Boyd's performance in the Oboe Concerto (better known in a transcribed version for flute) is among the very best available; his tone is a marvel of consistency, and his ornaments the soul of grace.
Schneider's high-speed reading of the opening movement of the Sinfonia Concertante does not faze him, or his compatriots, a bit. The sonic environment in the Oboe Concerto is better than that of the other two works, which tends to leave the orchestra feeling alone in a very big space. Listeners who encounter this version of the Oboe Concerto in online-download situations are strongly urged to purchase it, and the disc as a whole never has less than a high level of musicianship.