Formed by string players from some of Europe’s leading orchestras and ensembles specifically to give historically informed performances of Mozart’s string quintets, Spunicunifait takes its name from a nonsense word used by Mozart in one of his letters, the meaning of which remains a mystery. “We wanted to make a recording that would approach the quintets with the same reverence that [Mozart’s] quartets receive,” they say, and that approach results in performances of the six works that have transparency, flexibility and easy athleticism. There are the five well-known mature quintets, as well as the early B flat work K174, for which Spuncunifait play two versions of its finale. All are composed for a quintet of strings with two violas (unlike Boccherini’s quintets and Schubert’s famous C major quintet, which employ two cellos).
The players – Lorenza Borrani and Maia Cabeza (violin), Max Mandel and Simon Von Rahden (viola) and Luise Buchberger (cello) – use a mix of 18th-century instruments and 21st-century copies; the recorded sound is close and involving. Not all aspects of the group’s approach will be to all tastes: vibrato is very sparingly used, and its absence can often be starkly effective, but the tendency to link notes in phrases with tiny glissandi can sometimes seem a little overdone. These are minor quibbles, though. The performances reveal the group’s musicality and deep understanding of these under-appreciated works in every bar.
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