Sir Clifford Curzon was a Decca artist for the whole of his recording career, but he was not a prolific maker of records. His friend and Decca producer John Culshaw wrote in his autobiography Putting the record straight (Secker and Warburg: 1981) that Curzon's sensitive, volatile temperament, and his continual search for interpretative perfection were rather at odds with the recording process, and for some inexplicable reason Curzon sessions were particularly prone to technical disasters. It became increasingly difficult to tempt the great pianist into the studio as he grew older, and he was more and more reluctant to pass for publication such recordings that he did make. But every published Curzon record is of high quality, and it is good to have this example of his superlative artistry in the music of Mozart, a composer who was particularly close to his heart. Indeed, Curzon's stylistic perfection in Mozart was formed at a time when this composer was often much less well served than he is now.
Curzon and the Amadeus Quartet were old friends, and in these versions there is clearly a close rapport between all four players, though Brainin's distinctive, slowish, wide vibrato was already very noticeable in September 1952, when the recordings were made, and seems out of style in Mozart. In every other respect these are superlative, beautifully poised performances. The piano tone is very good, but the strings sound a little edgy, and the acoustic is a little confined.
Dennis Brain was the outstanding horn player of his time, and his services were in such demand that he was often called to accept clashing engagements which involved the most hair-raising dashes from one venue to the next, usually achieved with the greatest of aplomb. His sunny temperament could not have been more dissimilar to that of Curzon, but he was at the same time a serious prodigiously gifted artist, as is shown in this performance of Mozart's Horn Quintet. His inimitably bright, superbly rounded tone, and his fail-safe, fantastically agile technique are very evident as is his highly imaginative creative musicianship. He is well partnered by his string colleagues and the early example of Decca's ''full-frequency range recording'', made in October 1944, reveals a remarkably good quality of sound. Incidentally, the cue numbers for the Horn Quintet printed in the insert and on the back of the CD are incorrect.'