LPs on the
Vox
label, retailing widely for $1.49 in college bookstores and the like, were a formative experience for many classical music listeners. Many of them sounded like they were recorded in a cardboard box, but there were exceptions; those produced by the team of
Marc Aubort
and
Joanna Nickrenz
were admired for their engineering at the time. Now
, these days under the ownership of the
Naxos
family of labels, has begun to reissue
albums by these producers in remastered audiophile editions. On an initial hearing of this release, featuring pianist
Walter Klien
with the
Minnesota Orchestra
under conductor
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
, some may react by saying that the bar for audiophile recordings was pretty low in 1978 when the album was released. Keep listening; the basic sound does not have modern precision, but the transparency and depth, revealing a great deal of instrumental detail, are impressive indeed. Best of all is that the engineering supports strong performances.
Klien
was not a household name, but he was an exceptional Mozartian who managed a pearly tone, a highly expressive slow movement in the
Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K. 453
, and an ear for the unexpected harmonic details in both concertos. Conductor
Skrowaczewski
strikes an elegant balance with the soloist and brings out the orchestral wind parts much better than most of his contemporaries. In short, this is a
Mozart
recording for more than just audiophiles. ~ James Manheim