Matthias Bamert directs shapely and balanced performances which possess an appealing palette of colours, a sense of rhetorical claritiy and plenty of spontaneous charm.
Gramophone
It’s refreshing these days to hear music of this kind played by a modern instrument orchestra, Matthias Bamert and the London Mozart Players do it proud. Chandos’ recording is exemplary.
BBC Music Magazine
Matthias Bamert’s survey of music by Mozart’s contemporaries continues with this elegant programme of Cannabich Symphonies. Harmonically conservative, lavishly scored, and full of the mannerist crescendi and rising figures the Mannheim Orchestra was famous for, these are fascinating examples of the style gallant. Though Cannabich had found his way to sonata form in the G major symphony, something of Telemann’s programmatic writing hangs over the Symphony in A major, while baroque affects are yet more keenly felt in the D major Symphony. The London Mozart Players’ pristine sound and careful phrasing is highly enjoyable throughout.
Independent on Sunday
The melodies are always well thought our and developed, and the orchestration is adroit and occasionally inventive… This isn’t Mozart, nor is it Haydn, but it is music that immediately appeals to the ear and manages to hold the attention quite well, even upon extended or repeated hearings.
Fanfare
As in the previous issues of Chandos’ Contemporaries of Mozart series, Matthias Bamert and the London Mozart Players provide polished and stylish performances.
BBC Music Magazine