Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concertos Nos. 22 & 27 (Alfred Brendel)

Information

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1. Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat major, K. 482: 1. Allegro
2. Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat major, K. 482: 2. Andante
3. Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat major, K. 482: 3. Allegro
4. Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K. 595: 1. Allegro
5. Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K. 595: 2. Larghetto
6. Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K. 595: 3. Rondo (Allegro)

Alfred Brendel, piano
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Charles Mackerras, conductor

Date: 2001
Label: Philips
http://www.deccaclassics.com/us/cat/4683672

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

Among the new issues from Philips honoring the 70th birthday of Alfred Brendel comes this new recording of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat K. 482, paired with No. 27 in B-flat K. 595. The big E-flat concerto’s astounding and magisterial opening ritornello gets regal treatment from Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (an ensemble Brendel clearly enjoys working with), and the drama and nobility are deftly and powerfully matched by Brendel himself. A special and unique point of interest concerns the two cadenzas, both Brendel’s own, which seem to show him as an ever more acerbic and provocative innovator. The cunning juxtapositioning of first and second subject themes from the opening allegro is gripping. Like Perahia (Sony), but especially Géza Anda (DG), whose account of K. 482 closely mirrors Brendel’s view of the andante, the classical proportions and divertimento-like feel of those passages in which the soloist supports the winds is movingly intimate. The finale, too, is magnificently and spaciously done, and again Brendel’s cadenza is ingenious.

It’s tempting to suggest that this new version of K. 595 begins where Brendel’s earlier Philips reading with Marriner and the Academy of St. Martins left off; but that’s a major understatement, for Brendel’s concept of the work has undergone radical overhaul. As with his earlier version he uses Mozart’s own cadenzas, but the general outlook is more questioning and exploratory, with less of a sense of resignation in this valedictory–and most enigmatic–of Mozart concertos. In the opening allegro, Brendel highlights the unsettled chromaticism of the scoring more vividly than you’ve ever heard it before, teasing out every paradox and ironic aside with more wit than sadness at times–and the central larghetto also is done entirely without sentiment. The finale, again briskly played and wonderfully fluid, never seems to hint at finality, leaving you feeling Brendel has plenty more to say about this amazing work. Both accounts are exceptional, not just for the strength and vitality of Brendel’s pianism, but also for the fertility of intellect that underlies these startlingly youthful and provocative interpretations.

-- ClassicsToday

More reviews:
http://www.classical-music.com/review/mozart-47
http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Piano-Concertos-22-27/dp/B00005IB5W

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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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