MOZART: Flute Quartets in D, A, C & G; Flute Concerto in G K 313 – Yoshimi Oshima, flute/ members of the Kocian Quartet/ (in Concerto: Praga Camerata/Pavel Hula) – Praga Digitals multichannel SACD PRD/DSD 250 255, 78:47 **** [Not distr. in the U.S. – www.pragadigitals.com] :
It is hard to believe that Mozart confided in one of his letter to his father than he disliked the flute, because these are some of the loveliest works of chamber music for the instrument ever written by anyone. They are cheery, joyful and highly cultured – an even classier accompaniment to other activities than the composer’s many serenades and divertimenti. Supposedly Mozart was only making a buck for himself in creating this commission for “a Dutchman from the Indies” who was an amateur flutist. But the results were spectacular. While there is plenty of competition in recordings of these works, few also include Mozart’s Flute Concerto on the same disc, and there seems to be only one other SACD version available.
Yoshimi Oshima is a note Japanese flutist who has performed previously with the Kocian Quartet of Prague. He has a lovely rounded tone which is expertly captured in Praga’s multichannel surround. While the CD layer is good, it lacks separation of the flute from the other three instruments, and the higher regions of both the flute and strings are more dulled.
– John Sunier