This year has seen a good number of new Harmoniemusik releases. We thought it would be useful to put them all in one place, for your perusal! Happy shopping...
La Scintilla dei Fiati: Mozart – Entführung aus dem Serail
Solo Musica SM244
La Scintilla dei Fiati is made up of members of the orchestra of Zurich Opera House and its resident period-instrument orchestra, La Scintilla. The arrangement of Entführung presented here is an important one because there's some evidence it may have been made by Mozart himself.
Winds Unlimited: Harmoniemusik from Mozart's Favourite Operas
Cobra COBRA0049
Led by clarinettist Chen Halevy, period-instrument Harmonie Winds Unlimited have recorded some of the wonderfully named Georg Kaspar Sartorius's arrangements of Mozart's operas, Don Giovanni, La Clemenza di Tito and Le Nozze di Figaro.
Scottish Chamber Orchestra Wind Soloists
Mozart: Divertimenti
LINN CKD 479
OK, this technically came out in 2015, but we thought we should include it. The SCO Wind Soloists are drawn from the principal players of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, known for their crossover modern instruments/HIP approach to a broad range of repertoires. Their CD of Mozart divertimenti contains several of Mozart's 'Tafelmusik' Divertimenti. Early works originally scored for oboes, horns and bassoons, they are heard hear with clarinets instead, and paired with his later Eb Serenade, also in the (in this case original) clarinet sextet version.
Zefiro: Harmonie & Turcherie
Outhere Music A391
This CD from Zefiro explores the borderlands between Harmoniemusik at 'Turkish' music: expanded wind ensembles that included a whole variety of brass, woodwind and Janissary percussion. It features music by the brothers Haydn, Mozart, Rossini, Mendelssohn, Donizetti, Schubert, Spohr and Friedrich Witt. It also wins the prize for the best booklet pictures...
Boxwood & Brass: Music for a Prussian Salon
Resonus RES10177
If you're reading this, probably already know about this one! Though given the list above, we feel as though we missed the memo about 2016 being the year of Mozart harmoniemusik. Instead, we spent a happy year in the company of Berlin-based clarinettist Franz Tausch and his students. Check out our other blog posts if you'd like to know why he's actually quite important and interesting...