Florent Héau here goes back to the source and origins of his instrument: Mozart and his friend and brother Mason Anton Stadler - to whom the critic Schink, fascinated by the velvety sound of the clarinet, wrote in these terms: ‘Your instrument has so soft and lovely a tone that no one with a heart can resist it . . .’
This CD is a paean of praise to tenderness in music, illustrating Mozart’s innermost convictions about fraternity, love and life. Florent Héau and the Manfred Quartet have sought to recreate that gentleness of timbres, that enveloping, spellbinding sound which have made the Clarinet Quintet so well-loved.
They have prolonged this atmosphere of ineffable loveliness with two transcriptions for clarinet and string trio of Mozart sonatas originally written for piano and violin. This was a widespread practice in the second half of the eighteenth century, the period when solo wind instruments become popular: players often transcribed tunes from successful operas or music for other combinations, thus expanding their repertoire and at the same time encouraging progress in instrumental design.
Over the last decade or so of his life, Mozart was both a witness to and a protagonist in the fantastic development of the clarinet, from the Denner instruments he heard in Mannheim to Stadler’s five-keyed clarinet in Vienna.
“The quintet is one of Mozart’s most beloved chamber works, but the quartets in E flat and B flat? The Köchel numbers, 380/374f and 378/317d identify them as sonatas for violin and piano...In this guise, they occasionally sound strangely un-Mozartian but Héau, a new name to me, and the Manfred’s play them with the same flair and imagination that they bring to the glorious quintet. The superb performances elevate the disc above curiosity status.” Hugh Canning, Sunday Times, 24th August 2008 ***
