COMPOSERS: F X Mozart
LABELS: Decca
ALBUM TITLE: F X Mozart - songs
WORKS: Sechs Lieder; Acht Deutsche Lieder
PERFORMER: Barbara Bonney (soprano)Malcolm Martineau
CATALOGUE NO: 475 6936
Born in the year of his father’s death,
Franz Xaver was one of Mozart’s
two children (both male) to survive
into adulthood and the only one
to sustain a musical career, albeit
scarcely a high-flying one. A pupil
of distinguished teachers, including
his father’s rival Salieri and his pupil
Hummel, he toured as a pianist and
held a few appointments in central
and Eastern Europe, dying in
Carlsbad in 1844.
His own compositions include
cantatas and other choral works,
chamber music and a good deal
for the piano, on which he was
clearly an able performer. This
collection of songs covers roughly
the period 1810-30, and shows
him an equally able composer,
if quite some distance short of
a great one. The basic tone is of
the attractive lighter style of the
period known as Biedermeier. But
there’s a certain range here, with
an appealing narrative ballad and
charming setting (under the title of
Erinnerung) of a poem by Byron.
The sound is closely recorded,
and shows Barbara Bonney’s
tone hardening somewhat and
losing some of its pearly quality.
But she remains a perceptive
and musical performer, and is
astutely accompanied by Malcolm
Martineau. George Hall