Johan Dalene, Eivind Ringstad: Mozart

The Strad Issue: August 2024

Description: A Sinfonia concertante is a high point in this celebration of youthful talent

Musicians: Johan Dalene (violin) Eivind Ringstad (viola) Ariel Lanyi (piano) Alexandre Zanetta (horn) Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg/Howard Griffiths

Works: Mozart: Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola; Rondos: D major, A major; Horn Concerto no.2

Catalogue number: ALPHA ALPHA1051

Among the talented soloists featured in vol.9 of the Orpheum Foundation’s Next Generation Mozart Soloists series are Johan Dalene and Elvind Ringstad, who give spruce accounts of the operatic outer movements of the Sinfonia concertante, displaying technical fluidity and lively imagination and dovetailing sensitively in the conversational interplay. Their performances’ unified pliancy and appropriately matched phrasing and tonal colours intensify the expressive warmth and melancholy of the Andante, but they are never over-indulgent in their tempo or stylistic approach and their expansive readings of Mozart’s cadenzas in all three movements are joys to behold.

Ariel Lanyi’s light touch and well-articulated passagework serve him well in the two piano rondos, but his own cadenza for the A major seems incongruous, especially when heard alongside Mozart’s own in the Allegro section of the D major’s variations. Alexandre Zanetta blends the colours and dynamic subtleties of the natural horn with the orchestra’s modern instruments in a variable account of Mozart’s Second Concerto. His opening Allegro lacks that last ounce of technical security, but he shines in the lyrical Andante and plays the rondo finale with spirit and buoyancy – one additional lead-in, however, seems weirdly incompatible. Favoured with a clear, atmospheric and well-balanced recording, Howard Griffiths and the Mozarteum Orchestra accompany with refinement and style.

ROBIN STOWELL