Mozart Last 8 Piano Concertos (daniel Barenboim) (20121986 89)

Mozart Momentum 1785 is the first of two releases on which pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra are exploring the remarkable years of 1785/86 in W.A. Mozart's life. It includes piano concertos Nos 20-22, the Piano Quartet in G minor, Masonic Funeral Music and Fantasia in C minor for solo piano.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concertos Nos. 9, 12 & 14
Edna Stern, piano / Orchestre de chambre d'Auvergne / Arie van Beek, dir.
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 250 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Zig-Zag # ZZT100901 | Country/Year: France 2010
Genre: Classical | Style: Viennese School

Born in Brussels, Belgium, but raised in Israel, pianist Edna Stern began taking lessons at age 6 and became a student of Viktor Derevenko at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv. After a return to Brussels, Stern worked with Martha Argerich, then moved to Basel in 1996 to study with Krystian Zimerman. Attendance at master classes led by Alicia de Larrocha, Andreas Staier, and Leon Fleisher at the International Piano Foundation inspired to her to follow Fleisher to the Peabody Institute…

With this second recording of piano concertos - following the Variations in 2021 - I am extending my Franz Xaver Mozart project. Already at an early stage in my career as a pianist, I felt a special connection to the compositions of Franz Xaver Mozart. It was his 1st Piano Concerto that I performed during my first orchestral performance abroad at the age of 13, that took place in Switzerland, accompanied by the INSO Lviv Orchestra. His music stirred my soul and still inspires me today. After my studies, I became intensively absorbed in Franz Xavier Mozart’s work. In the process, I kept discovering new precious musical gems. His work in Galicia continues to invigorate the multicultural life of the region to this day. With the expansion of this Franz Xaver Mozart project, I hope his music will step out of his father’s shadow, the great master Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and be recognised accordingly. I am convinced that his legacy has not yet been fully explored, which motivates me to continue my research.

In an edition of several releases on Eloquence devoted to the artistry of the great Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha’s Decca recordings comes the first release on CD of her recording, with David Zinman, of Mozart’s delectable A major Concerto KV 414. Coupled exactly as per the original LP (SXL 6952), this release offers up Larrocha’s subtlety of phrasing and nimble fingerwork in the Bach and Haydn Concertos. The ‘gypsy’ finale of the latter is something she clearly relishes.

These three piano concertos provide new insights: two discoveries from the classical era that alter our perspective on the seemingly familiar. Giovanni Battista Martini was a leading music theoretician of his time. His compositions caused a sensation. His many pupils included Johann Christian Bach. Christoph Willibald Gluck, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel sought musical instruction from him.

Perahia’s immaculate technique, stylistic surety, and classical symmetry are remarkably consistent. While his tone is always singing and rounded, lyrical melodies and decorative passages alike convey a slight diamond-like edge to the peak of crescendos or an emphatic accent. This helps achieve an attractive fusion of unruffled poise and dramatic tension. You hear this quite readily in the B-flat K. 456 concerto ‘s first movement, or in the carefully pedaled trills and restatement of the main theme in K. 595’s heavenly Larghetto, also sampled here. Perahia’s symbiotic musical rapport with Radu Lupu in the two-piano concerto and the two-piano version of the concerto for three pianos should not go unmentioned.

– Jed Distler