This disc of Mozart's music with clarinet—but not originally so in the case of the Sonata, which appears here in a transcription for clarinet and string trio—is evidently a companion to another one I reviewed in which the same instrument was featured and which was recorded in the same Budapest church also on Naxos. The company and artists have spread Mozart pretty thinly between these issues, but one need not complain when they come at super-bargain price and are artistically successful enough.
Nowadays we often hear the Clarinet Quintet on a basset-clarinet (a lower relative of the modern clarinet), as was played by the original performer, Anton Stadler. However, Jozsef Balogh uses a conventional clarinet and proves himself to be an accomplished artist. So are his colleagues, the Danubius Quartet; this performance flows along both naturally and gracefully, although we are seldom reminded of the occasional shadows beneath the work's polished surface. In this respect versions by Sabine Meyer and the Berlin Philharmonic Quartet or Gervase de Peyer with the Melos Ensemble offer more satisfying performances, though at a higher price.
In the rarely heard Allegro, Balogh plays a basset-horn (another lower-range clarinet that descends to the low F of the bass clef), while his colleague Bela Kovacs plays an ordinary clarinet; this work is Franz Beyer's completion of a single unfinished movement from a projected Quintet in F for these two instruments plus string trio, which Mozart seems to have intended for Stadler and his brother Johann. The unattributed quartet version of the Violin Sonata in E flat is agreeable enough in this form and the slow movement suits the clarinet well. The recording of all this music is pleasing, if not especially atmospheric.'