This latest version of the so-called Gran Partita (the title isn’t Mozart’s) enters a very competitive field. These French players do not have a specially smooth ensemble blend (notably when the horns offer a brazen forte), but they are generally well tuned and individually they have a light touch; there is some very attractive if rather understated solo work, from the first oboe and the first clarinet, and the trios of the minuets, for example, are often particularly happy. So is the variation movement, with much nicely placed detail. The Romanze is romantically slow and decidedly heavy although the middle section is sprightly enough, with a deft bassoon (who is however slightly fluffy-toned in slower-moving music). While the phrasing of the first movement is neat and shapely, the effect as a whole seems to me slightly listless and wanting in spirit, and I thought the nocturne-like Adagio just a shade too cool – the players are obviously cautious of wearing their hearts on their sleeves, but I’d like a bit more assurance that they have hearts at all. Perhaps the chief problem, however, is the very resonant recording, which constantly adds a boominess to the texture and often blunts the quicksilver changes of texture. It seems ill-advised to choose such an acoustic for music that may well originally have been intended for outdoor performance.
The CD is, however, a generous one, offering additionally K388 in a sturdy performance. The first movement is lively enough, without quite the passion it sometimes elicits, and the canonic minuet comes over very clearly and vigorously; the Andante, however, seems ponderous and wanting in sense of movement, but the variation movement here, again, draws some good individual playing. The over-resonant recording is less damaging here than in the more fully scored K361. A good disc, then, and good value too, but there are several superior versions of both works in the catalogue.'