MOZART & HOFFMEISTER: TWO FLUTE QUARTETS - Carol Wincenc, The Muir String Quartet

My initial reaction to performing transcrip­tions of the beautifully pianistic works of Mozart was a mixture of enthusiasm and skep­ticism, but I soon became convinced of their validity in the arrangements by Hoffmeister. I was curious, however, how Hoffmeister dealt with Mozart's original scores, and so began comparing. To my surprise, Hoffmeister had rewritten some eminently playable passages in Mozart's original, probably for what he con­sidered a more technical display. I have restored some of these passages in our present version (affecting predominantly the flute parts), as well as changing some doublings in the string parts. The point of departure was not to imitate the piano (an obvious temptation when deal­ing with choices of coloring, articulation, and dynamic variation), but rather to allow Mozart's music to be experienced in a setting for which he also wrote his ever-popular flute quartets: K. 285, K. 285a, K. 285b, and K. 298. We now have two pieces which stand in­dependently and convincingly, not merely as transcriptions, but as "new" works of Mozart for flute and strings. Carol Wincenc