Mozart: Concerto for Flute and Harp, Flute Concerto No. 1 & Sinfonia concertante for Wind Instruments

The upmarket Swiss alpine resort of St. Moritz, where Herbert von Karajan owned a home, echoed to the sounds of Mozart in the summer of 1971. The conductor and his Berliner Philharmoniker met at the town’s French Church to record an album featuring solo turns from several of the orchestra’s principal wind players, the Belfast-born flautist James Galway among them, and its equally admirable harpist, Fritz Helmis. Galway’s honeyed tone and distinctive vibrato are matched by the joy he and Helmis bring to every phrase. Listen, for instance, to the “Andantino” from the Concerto for Flute and Harp for a masterclass in expressive playing and ensemble unanimity. Andreas Blau, meanwhile, brings a steelier sound to the composer’s First Flute Concerto but is no less lyrical than his older colleague. This album, long unavailable for streaming, is capped by an aristocratic account of the Sinfonia concertante for four winds and the scintillating finale of Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony, a thrilling bonus plucked from Karajan’s classic 1970 recording.