The combination of Mozart’s Divertimento in E flat K563 and Schoenberg’s String Trio op 45 is both unusual and telling. On the one hand we have a piece by a classical composer that began as a sideshoot in a genre usually limited to light entertainment but strays into the deeper realms inhabited by the Gran Partita for twelve wind instruments and double bass K361 or even Schubert’s late C minor Quintet; on the other hand a turbulent distillation by the exponent of the “new music” who in this late work transcends to some extent the dodecaphonic style – this is a meeting of minds on a level that no longer separates works according to the epochs in which they were written.

Rainer Kussmaul, Wolfram Christ und Georg Faust, three former principals in the Berlin Philharmonic, here reveal themselves to be true masters of chamber music.

Another encounter between Mozart and Schoenberg is offered by Campanella musica on “essential” CD C130137, recorded by the Ensemble Wien-Berlin.

Tracklisting

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Divertimento Es-Dur KV 563
01 Allegro
02 Adagio
03 Menuetto. Allegretto
04 Andante
05 Menuetto. Allegretto
06 Allegro

Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951)
Streichtrio op. 45
07 Teil 1
08 Teil 2
09 Teil 3

Gesamtlänge 63:17

Artists

Arnold Schönberg Trio
Rainer Kussmaul, Violin
Wolfram Christ, Viola
Georg Faust, Cello

Review

☞ »… der musikgeschichtliche Sprung zurück zur ersten Wiener Blütezeit gelingt glänzend.« Fono Forum, 5/2001