Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concertos Nos. 19 & 20 (Rudolf Serkin)

Information

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1. Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, K. 459: I. Allegro
2. Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, K. 459: II. Allegretto
3. Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, K. 459: III. Allegro assai
4. Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466: I. Allegro
5. Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466: II. Romance
6. Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466: III. Rondo. Allegro assai 

Rudolf Serkin, piano
Columbia Symphony Orchestra
George Szell, conductor

Date: 1964/1981
Label: Sony Classical (CBS)

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 7

These classic performances deserve the respect accorded them for nearly half a century. Rudolf Serkin is a model Mozart pianist, not just with respect to the taste and virtuosity of his playing, but also in his understanding of how best to relate to his musical surroundings in a true chamber music give-and-take with the orchestra. You can hear this very clearly in the finale of Piano Concerto No. 19, where piano and winds play cat and mouse games with the more serious strings, or in Serkin’s dramatic interventions in the first movement of Concerto No. 20. And of course, Szell’s contribution is every bit as commanding and polished, tightly controlled as may be expected but never stiff or mechanical. Sonically these recordings are dated, no doubt about it, but never to the point where the sonics get in the way, and the balances are excellent. This “expanded edition” also includes an equally fine account of the Concert Rondo K. 382, a most welcome bonus. First rate. [7/19/2004]

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday
reviewing Sony Classical - SK 93074

More reviews:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/mozart-piano-concertos-nos-19-20-mw0001853356
http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Concertos-Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart/dp/B0000025M9
http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Ctos-SERKIN-COLUMBIA-SZELL/dp/B0001ENYJY

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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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Rudolf Serkin (28 March 1903 – 8 May 1991) was a Bohemian-born pianist. Serkin studied piano with Richard Robert and composition with Joseph Mar and Arnold Schoenberg. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century. Serkin made numerous recordings from the 1940s into the 1980s, most of them for Columbia Masterworks, some are for RCA, Deutsche Grammophon and Telarc. He was also revered as a musician's musician, a father figure to a legion of younger players who came to the Marlboro School and Festival, which he and Adolf Busch founded in 1951.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Serkin

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