“…Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, opening the concert, received one of those performances that only a festival setting can elicit. When played by an established ensemble and even the greatest clarinetists, the music can sound so perfect that it takes on a sort of oxymoronically boring perfection…”
“…Separating Bruch and Mozart, Dariusz Przybylski’s 10-minute exercise in whistling, sul ponticello tremolos and ghostly glissandos in the strings featured Lato in a solo role that ranged from heraldic calls recalling ancestors of the clarinet, like the Hungarian tarogato, to exquisitely delicate filigree…”
“…No such problem with Piotr Lato and his colleagues who were complicit in a reading that not only allowed but seemed to encourage each player to play to their individual strengths and personalities, particularly cellist Marcin Zdunik who made his key solos in the first movement and the Menuetto’s second Trio moments of such astonishing spontaneity, complete with added ruffles and curlicues, that one could forgive the happy grins he shared with first violinist Jakub Jakowicz. Set angelically above the strings, clarinetist Lato gave a reading of seamless poetry and beauty, including giving full value to arpeggiated runs and dotted eighth notes in the last movement’s variations…”
Laurence Vittes
MusicWeb International