Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concertos Nos. 9 & 25 (Alfred Brendel)

Information

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1. Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, K. 271 - "Jeunehomme": 1. Allegro
2. Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, K. 271 - "Jeunehomme": 2. Andantino
3. Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, K. 271 - "Jeunehomme": 3. Rondeau (Presto) - Menuetto
4. Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503: 1. Allegro maestoso
5. Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503: 2. Andante
6. Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503: 3. Allegretto

Alfred Brendel, piano
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Charles Mackerras, conductor

Date: 2002
Label: Philips
http://www.deccaclassics.com/us/cat/4702872

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Review

Brendel and Mackerras prove an ideal partnership in Mozart’s concertos

Brendel’s latest recording‚ of K271 and K503‚ is alive with provocation‚ subtlety and distinction. In both widely contrasted concertos he somehow manages to combine a sense of first love and discovery with the sort of unalloyed musicianship that only comes with years of experience. He is also ideally complemented by Sir Charles Mackerras and the SCO who are as alert to musical impetus and every passing felicity as their superb soloist. Hearing them in the surprise cadence at 1'23" in K271 you are made aware of their special sense of Mozart’s early drama‚ of his coming of age as he surpasses his earlier concertos where court livery still disguised a distinctive personality.

Throughout‚ the sense of a chamber music­like interplay between Brendel and Mackerras is maintained with an ease and naturalness the reverse of a more obvious or immature approach. How withdrawn yet characterful is Brendel’s entry at 4'52" in the ever­astonishing C minor Andante‚ a movement which‚ as the sleeve note writer reminds us‚ is like ‘some darkly expressive stage gesture‚’ and how subtly he differentiates between Andantino and Andante in the cadenza‚ finding all of its prophecy of later autumnal sadness. The recitatives which conclude this movement could hardly be given with a greater sense of poise and intensity and the Menuetto from the finale (spun off with light­fingered wit and vivacity) sounds like some seraphic voice from before the Fall.

Mackerras opens K503 with a magnificent sense of its maestoso and the same musical qualities noted in K271 are present in every bar. Brendel’s own cadenza for the first movement is impishly engaging yet unfailingly true to Mozart’s spirit. He is gloriously ad libitum at 2'36" in the Andante‚ and in the finale’s haunting second subject how telling is that barely perceptible lingering or emphasis on the expressive centre or fulcrum of each phrase. The Andante’s lines are discreetly and stylishly embellished and in K271 Brendel chooses the second set of Mozart’s cadenzas. Philips’s sound and balance are exemplary and such richly inclusive performances make you realise that Mozart’s greatest concertos are so much more than ‘golden chains of galantries’ (Einstein) or music of a ‘Grecian lightness and grace’ (Schumann).

-- Bryce Morrison, Gramophone

More reviews:

BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****

http://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-7819/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-Piano-Concertos-Nos-25/dp/B00005YX6D

http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Piano-Concertos-Nos-25/dp/B00005YX6D

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 in Salzburg – 5 December 1791 in Vienna) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. Till his death in Vienna, he composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. Mozart is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence is profound on subsequent Western art music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart

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Alfred Brendel (born 5 January 1931 in Wiesenberg, Czechoslovakia) is an Austrian pianist, poet and author, particularly for his performances of Mozart, Schubert, Schoenberg, and especially Beethoven. Brendel never had much formal piano training and was largely self-taught. He gave his first public recital at the age of 17, made his first recording at 21, then went on to make a string of other records, including three complete sets of the Beethoven piano sonatas, and was the first performer to record the complete solo piano works of Beethoven. Brendel gave his final concert on 20 February 2008 at Carnegie Hall, New York.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Brendel

http://www.alfredbrendel.com/

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