Mozart: Stolen Beauties

Acclaimed Australian period-instrument ensemble Ironwood and internationally renowned horn player Anneke Scott present a disc celebrating the music of Mozart, and exploring the composers who were seduced by its beauty, inspired by its innovation - and who crafted their own music around its most sublime moments.

Mozart's Horn Quintet is one of the jewels in the crown of the composer's chamber music. Mozart, a viola player himself, chose to balance the natural horn with two violas rather than the usual string quartet format, creating a melodious and sonorous sound which is brought to life in this recording through the use of instruments from Mozart's time.

Mozart's music was a source of great inspiration to many composers. The album opens with an anonymous work which takes its theme from the aria 'Là ci darem la mano' from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. Michael Haydn's Romance bears close relation to the slow movement of the Mozart E flat major Horn Concerto; and the album also features an arrangement of Mozart's 'Kegelstatt' Trio by the London-based Barham Livius. Works for horn by the Bohemian-born horn virtuoso Giovanni Punto, who played with Beethoven, complete the disc.

Ironwood is an Australian-based ensemble, committed to exploring music of the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods on early string and keyboard instruments. The members are some of Australia's most respected early and contemporary chamber musicians. Anneke Scott is acknowledged as one of the world's leading horn players. She is principal horn of John Eliot Gardiner's English Baroque Soloists, the Orchestra of The Sixteen, Fabio Biondi's Europa Galante, Dunedin Consort and Players and The King's Consort, as well as appearing regularly as a guest principal with orchestras and ensembles worldwide.

Recording of the month, Limelight magazine