Mozart would have a change of heart

Famously, Mozart confided to his father that he could not bear the flute, although the classical catalogue would be inestimably poorer without the composer's four flute quartets and pair of concertos for the instrument.

A new recording of the concertos by Dutch flautist Jacques Zoon might well make Wolfgang change his mind within a few bars, if this CD could somehow be spirited into the next world.

The fast movements glisten and gleam with just the right balance of grace and purpose, of sweetness and light, an Andante and Adagio come across like strings of elegant sighs.

Zoon plays a modern recreation of an 18th-century instrument, revealing a gloriously liquid tone, showcased in the flautist's cadenzas. Once again, Telarc produces its usual sonic wizardry. Recorded in the favoured venue of Boston's Mechanics Hall, the balance is perfection and the sound remarkably full for a contingent of period instruments.

The 30-odd players of the Boston Baroque have the stage to themselves for Mozart's Jupiter Symphony. This score is one of the summits of symphonic achievement (the painter Paul Klee described it as "the highest attainment in art") and also one of the most joyous in the symphonic canon.

Conductor Martin Pearlman does it proud on both counts, and there is no shortage of stirring ceremony in the opening pages, although the American's crescendo into the first phrase strikes me as a little gimmicky. However, when the mood is less formal and more dance-like, the sheer verve of the Boston players is irresistible.

The immaculate contouring of the Andante cantabile, coloured by the pungent tones of oboe and bassoon, is simply a marvel. Also astonishing is the way in which Pearlman maintains clarity through phrasing and dynamics as Mozart moves the music into denser harmonic terrain.

The Menuetto has real swing, although it is not so rustic that it, too, can't enjoy the sophistication of a few dizzying chromatic shivers. By the last movement (the "summit of all daring", according to Klee) the orchestra erupts in blazes of irrepressible C major, like mighty columns between the contrapuntal intricacies that have given this Finale its fame.

* Mozart, Flute Concertos and Jupiter Symphony (Telarc CD 80624, through Elite Imports)