Mozart's Piano Concertos
Perahia's recording of Mozart's Piano Concertos
Gramophone Choice
Piano Concertos Nos 1-27
English Chamber Orchestra / Murray Perahia (pf)
Sony Classical 82876 87230-2 (10h 8' · ADD/DDD · Recorded 1975-84) Buy from Amazon
Mozart concertos from the keyboard are unbeatable. There’s a rightness, an effortlessness, about doing them this way that makes for heightened enjoyment. So many of them seem to gain in vividness when the interplay of pianist and orchestra is realised by musicians listening to each other in the manner of chamber music. Provided the musicians are of the finest quality, of course. We now just take for granted that the members of the English Chamber Orchestra will match the sensibility of the soloist. They are on top form here, as is Perahia, and the finesse of detail is breathtaking.
Just occasionally Perahia communicates an ‘applied’ quality – a refinement which makes some of his statements sound a little too good to be true. But the line of his playing, appropriately vocal in style, is exquisitely moulded; and the only reservations one can have are that a hushed, ‘withdrawn’ tone of voice, which he’s a little too ready to use, can bring an air of self-consciousness to phrases where ordinary, radiant daylight would have been more illuminating; and that here and there a more robust treatment of brilliant passages would have been in place. However, the set is entirely successful on its own terms – whether or not you want to make comparisons with other favourite recordings. Indeed, we now know that records of Mozart piano concertos don’t come any better played than here.
Additional Recommendation
Piano Concertos – Nos 18 & 22
Northern Sinfonia / Imogen Cooper (pf)
Avie AV2200 (66' · DDD) Buy from Amazon
The qualities that make Cooper quite simply one of the finest pianists this country has produced make her perfect for Mozart duty. Clear but velvety ringing tone, perfect voicing of chords, unsleeping alertness to the necessary subtleties of rubato and line, and above all an ability to realise this music’s intimate poetry that can make you catch your breath, make these performances the kind that any musician should listen to and learn from. There are good opportunities to display such artistry in these two concertos, both of which have minor-key slow movements of considerable emotional sophistication, to which Cooper responds with depth and grace. In general the Northern Sinfonia provide backing that is musically engaged, texturally transparent and technically right up to the mark.
