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Krommer, almost an exact contemporary of Mozart, is the best of companions
for a stroll in the park or a half hour spent on the terrace (a formal one,
of course, but not too stiff or periwigged). The air is warm, the breeze
light, and you have had a very good sufficiency of a late lunch.
There is not Mozart's searching after more remote harmonic regions, nor
Haydn's extraordinary equipoise of gravity and wit, but Krommer is always
engaging elegant, robustly architectural but gracefully formed. Or he is
swashbuckingly good fun. It is impossible not to like this music. [Click to listen.]
 The Michael Thompson Wind Ensemble play the first two partitas
of Krommer's Opus 45 (in E flat and B flat) and then the Partita in E flat
with two solo horns - a double concerto for winds in all but name. The musicianship
is superb - every one of them a virtuoso, but blending perfectly, equally
pleased with foreground or background, solo or ensemble. [Click
to listen.] Krommer's characteristically strong bass lines (often with
contra bassoon) are marvellously light in colour despite their tonal depth
and weight. Tempi seem just right. The jaunty hemiolas in the minuets make
you smile but never stumble. [Click to listen.]
A most enjoyable disc. Excellent sound. Useful notes. Expect this to
win awards in due course.
Copyright © Peter Dale, October
13th 1999
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