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Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
Music for oboe and strings
Alexei Utkin,
oboe, English horn
Arcady Futer, violin
Yuri Yurov, viola
Mikhail Milman, cello
Adagio for English
horn, violin, viola, and cello in C major KV 580a
Quartet for oboe, violin, viola and cello in C major (Flute Quartet
in autograph) KV285b
Quartet for oboe, violin, viola and cello in F major KV 370
Quartet for oboe, violin, viola and cello in C major (Flute Quartet
KV 285 in autograph)
Total time: 55.07
Recording: 1994 - 1995.
In 1983 Alexei Utkin graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire
where he studied under the tutorship of professor Petrov. In the
same year he won the First Prize at the Russian National Competition
for Oboe. Consequently he played at the most prestigious halls in
the world: Carnegy Hall (New York), Concertgebauw (Amsterdam), Auditorio
Nacional (Madrid), Academia Santa Cecilia (Rome), Champs Elysees
(Paris) and of course Moscow Conservatoire Great Hall. For many
years he was a Principal of the Moscow Virtuosi orchestra. He made
many recordings with RCA and BMG. Alexei Utkin is Professor at the
Moscow State Conservatoire.
Arkady Futer (violin) was born in Moscow in 1932.
He was a student of Professor Yury Yankelevich at the Moscow Conservatoire
and then post-graduated from it with the highest qualifications.
For many years he was a Principal of the Moscow Virtuosi orchestra.
Recorded several compact-discs with RMG-RCA and NET-SEAL.
Yury Yurov (viola) graduated from the Gnessins' Academy
of Music in 1966. Prize-winner of the International Festival of
music in Budapest in 1968. A soloist of the State Symphony Orchestra
of the Russian Federation. Professor of the Gnessin's Academy of
Music. Honored Artist of the Russian Federation.
Mikhail Milman (cello). Born in 1947 in Moscow. Studied
at the Moscow Conservatoire with Natalia Gutman and Mstislav Rostropovich.
Graduated in 1971. For many years played with the Moscow Virtuosi.
Made recordings with RMG-RCA, NET-SEAL and Teldoc. Soloist of the
Kapelman Quartet.
It's only in the textbooks of theory
of music that clearly outlined boundaries between different epochs
and styles exist. Indeed a travel through the three times of the
life of arts, that is past, present and future represents one of
the secrets of the unique fascination of the great composers' music.
The chamber works by Mozart for wind and string instruments written
late 1770s - early 1780s connect two epochs, baroque and classicism.
The traditional for Mozart and his elder contemporary, Franz Josef
Haydn, composition of quartet of two violins, viola and cello was
changed. A wind instrument - either flute, or oboe, or English horn
- was included. This kind of combinations of different timbers was
typical for the baroque music.
The associations with the baroque epoch do not confine just to the
formal resemblance. The virtuosity of the solo instrument, which
contrasts the mini-orchestra and the free structure of multi-part
works are also very typical of the baroque music. For instance,
Quartet C-DUR (KV 285 b) consists of only two parts, the first is
fast in a traditional for the music of classicism sonata form, and
the second slow, in the form of variations. Adagio C-DUR is a one-part
composition slightly resembling slow parts of the earlier Mozart's
symphonies. Other works on the disc are more traditional by their
forms.
Hermann Abert, the author of the classical fundamental research
of Mozart's music, says of the propinquity of the composer's chamber
ensembles of the 1770s - 1780s and his serenades. This is very true
indeed. But some fragments of the music anticipate the late Mozart's
style. A slow part of the Quartet F-DUR resembles a melancholy somewhat
in the French style (it was written with a view of performing in
Paris). But at the same time it's a quiet tragedy hidden under the
mask of a deep sorrow like many pages of Don Juan opera or even
Mozart's Requiem.
Of the works on the disk only Adagio C-DUR and Quartet F-DUR are
performed here as originally written. Two other works were originally
intended for the ensemble of flute and the string trio. The original
tonality of the Quartet KV 285 was D-DUR. It was a usual practice
for the baroque music. Many compositions assumed a variety of the
instrumental ensembles. Moreover, it was quite common to use somebody
else's musical material for composing one's own composition on canvas
of a respected senior musician. For instance some piano concertos
by Johann Sebastian Bach represent arrangements of the violin concertos
by Antonio Vivaldi. That is why an oboe version of the flute and
string quartets by Mozart, especially as performed by a musician
of the caliber of Alexei Utkin, look more than legitimate.
Mikhail Segelman
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