Two years ago BIS released a wonderful recording directed by Alexei Ogrintchouk, principal oboe of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, that included Richard Strauss’s 1944 ‘Sonatina No 2 in E flat major ‘Happy workshop’, performed by the wind players of the orchestra. Strauss dedicated this piece to “the divine Mozart at the end of a life filled with gratitude” so it is fitting that these same artists should now commit to disc the work that inspired the Strauss composition Mozart’s Serenade No. 10 in B flat K361 (K370a) “Gran Partita”. The compositional history of this ambitious seven-movement work is to say the least vague, but it is now believed that it was composed later than 1780 and first performed in 1784 at a benefit concert for the Vienna-based clarinet and basset horn player Anton Stadler.

Last time I checked there were more than sixty recordings of this masterpiece on CD, but of those, a mere half dozen, including this new release, are widely available in high resolution sound making BIS’s long term commitment to the SACD medium all the more commendable. As on the majority of recordings the thirteen instrument ensemble here comprises pairs of oboes, clarinets, basset horns, four horns and a double bass.

It can, of course, almost be taken for granted that these artists, as members of one of the world’s finest orchestra, will evince superlative musicianship and complete technical assurance in their performance of this Serenade and this proves to be the case. The rightness of Ogrintchouk’s chosen tempo for each movement is self evident and allows the contrasting character of every one of them to be significantly delineated by these amazing musicians. One nice touch to be found on this recording is that in the sixth movement (Tema con variazioni) the theme and each of the six variations that follow have each been allotted a separate track.

Following the Serenade we have a further set of variations, this time from the young Beethoven written in his Bonn years –‘Eight Variations on ‘Là ci darem la mano’ from Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’ WoO 28. These are scored for the unusual combination of cor anglais and two oboes; the former played by Miriam Pastor Burgos, and the latter by Alexei Ogrintchouk and Nicoline Alt. The consummate skill and wit with which these musicians perform these pieces makes a delightful encore to a splendid release.
The BIS 5.0 multi-channel SACD was recorded in the Kleine Zaal of the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam (March/April 2019). The recording from Marion Schwebel (Producer) and Fabian Frank (Sound engineer) is finely balanced and reveals a wealth of detail even in the denser passages where on some recordings the horns can overwhelm the other players. Here the sound is wonderfully clear and luminous with a wide soundstage that allows the precise identification of the placement of each instrument or group of instruments within the warm ambience of the hall.
I undertook comparisons with some of the alternative versions recorded in hi-res and concluded that though the LSO Live account is immaculately played and well recorded it lacks much of the individuality or nuances of the competition and incidentally has no coupling. Trevor Pinnock with the Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble on Linn is refreshingly brisk (perhaps too brisk?). He adds an engaging Haydn Notturno but his instrumentation of the Serenade includes a contra bassoon rather than a double bass – chacun à son goût! The Stuttgart Winds on a Tacet Blu-ray disc are uniformly excellent, but I accept that not every listener is amenable to the concept of Tacet’s ‘Real Surround Sound’. There can be little doubt, however, that the winning combination of unforced virtuosity and playing of refined elegance delivered in superb sound quality will make this new BIS version, for many, a clear front-runner in a crowded field Unreservedly recommended.