MOZART Piano Concertos Nos 22 & 24 (Richard-Hamelin)
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Analekta
Magazine Review Date: 06/2020
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 65
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: AN29147
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 22 |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
(Les) Violons du Roy, Québec Charles Richard-Hamelin, Piano Jonathan Cohen, Conductor |
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 24 |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
(Les) Violons du Roy, Québec Charles Richard-Hamelin, Piano Jonathan Cohen, Conductor |
Author: Harriet Smith
In these unworldly times of enforced social lockdown it’s interesting what gives emotional succour. I’d been revelling in the discovery of Mozart’s K488 with Radu Lupu live in Vienna in 1991 with a beaming Sándor Végh on YouTube when this disc arrived. For his first disc of Mozart, Charles Richard-Hamelin is joined by his fellow Quebeckers Les Violons du Roy, under their inspirational music director Jonathan Cohen.
There’s a simplicity to Richard-Hamelin’s approach that is beguiling (and far from simple to achieve): this is apparent from his very first entry in K482, following a tutti full of colour and imagination. The soloist’s passagework is lithe and shapely, eschewing the cool virtuosity of some. And, as with all the best readings of these concertos, there’s a lively sense of dialogue between soloist and individual instruments. Though Les Violons are not a period-instrument band, they have thoroughly absorbed the movement’s ethos and use modern string instruments with period bows. This is vividly illustrated in the variation-form Andante of K482, where vibrato is reduced to a minimum and Cohen sets up a slow pace for the theme itself that creates an almost sacred aura; Mackerras for Brendel flows at a faster tempo but both are very effective and there are many wonderful instances of piano duetting with wind, not least a wonderfully creamy-toned bassoon on this new set. The fleeting turn to the major (8'24") is duly heart-rending too. The sense of emotional release in the genial finale also comes across very winningly and the Andante cantabile section is movingly done, with the clarinets, bassoon and horns creating a chorale-like texture. The cadenzas in the outer movements of the concerto are Richard-Hamelin’s own and they fit well – basically Mozartian in style but with the occasional foray into more Beethovenian harmonies. Prior to listening to this new disc I’d been reacquainting myself with Edwin Fischer’s readings – which sound remarkably fresh and new even though they were made in the 1930s; in spirit they’re not so far from Richard-Hamelin and his cohorts.
Jonathan Cohen conjures a sense of dark unease in the opening of K491, with the brass and timpani given due prominence, to which the soloist responds with restraint and simplicity of phrasing. Others are more focused on colour, particularly Anderszewski and Uchida in her newer recording with the Cleveland Orchestra, while Edwin Fischer brings a compelling intensity that drives the music forwards. But Richard-Hamelin holds his own by creating a sense of intense dialogue with his fellow instrumentalists. His cadenza offers a guided tour of the music’s main motifs; and when the orchestra returns there’s a blazing power to the wind and brass-playing.
That intimacy and sense of detail is just as apparent in the remaining two movements, for instance in the way the strings emulate the piano’s opening phrases in the Larghetto. The finale’s variations are brought alive in the manner of a set of character pieces, from the lean string theme itself, to the piano’s fizzing response in Var 1, the wind-band sonorities conjured in Var 4 or the opera buffa ish élan of Var 6. As the darkness returns for the concerto’s close, it sets the seal on a very fine new recording.
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