The NSO’s principal conductor, Jaime Martín, began his career as flautist and held the position of principal flute with no less than three of London’s leading orchestras before becoming a full-time conductor in 2013.
These 2019 concert-based recordings of a selection of Mozart’s wind concertos show Martín as a light-footed Mozartean teaming up with principals of the London Symphony Orchestra, agreeably refined in three solo concertos (K417 for horn with Timothy Jones, K314 for oboe with Olivier Stankiewicz, and K622 for clarinet with Andrew Marriner), as well as the attractive Sinfonia Concertante of disputed authenticity for oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon (Chris Richards, Juliana Koch, Rachel Gough and Timothy Jones).
The remaining work, the glorious Serenade in B flat, K361, for 13 wind instruments, is heard in an unconducted 2015 performance by the LSO Wind Ensemble.
Mozart took a special delight in the colour and timbre of wind instruments, and his writing for then, both individually and in combination, has a tang and tingle all its own. These free-flowing performances are plumper in tone and looser in sinew than you would hear from players of a period-performance background. But Martín is a responsive partner and secures nice touches of detailing in the orchestral writing.
