Mozart: Serenade in D, K. 250 "Haffner" (SACD review)

Also, March in D, E. 249. Gordan Nikolic, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. PentaTone Classics PTC 5186 097.

There is certainly no shortage of Mozart "Haffner" Serenades to go around. There's one for almost every taste.  I'm afraid this one falls short of some of my favorites, though, even if the PentaTone SACD audio is fairly good.

Maestro Gordan Nikolic leads a modern-instruments group, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, in a fairly straightforward rendition of the work. There is nothing wrong with this, but if he wants to sell discs, he might have striven for something more extraordinary. The "Haffner" Serenade, dedicated to the daughter of its patron, Siegmund Haffner, is a long piece, over fifty minutes, divided into nine movements. Despite its length, it is a composition of light music by Mozart's standards; yet you wouldn't quite know it by Nikolic's performance, which rather emphasizes the music's serious side.

The little March that opens the program doesn't have a lot of zip to it, either. This is music for people who take their Mozart on the sedate side.

PentaTone's sound, reproduced on a hybrid multichannel and two-channel stereo SACD, is also somewhat on the heavy side, although it nicely complements the interpretation. I found the sonics a bit one-dimensional in terms of depth and slightly constricted in left-to-right spread, but I only listened in two channels, not multiple channels. I'm sure it would open up well to the additional speakers if you have them.

JJP