Mozart Piano Concertos

It's a recording that just a few years ago would have been mainstream: a "name" pianist (albeit one much less well known in the U.S. than elsehwere), who has been playing Mozart's piano concertos since childhood, joins forces with a name conductor with whom she has frequently collaborated, leading a modern-instrument orchestra of some 70 players, with the results released on a major international-conglomerate label. Now it's distinctly unusual. But lo, there's value in the old ways. Portuguese-Brazilian pianist Maria-João Pires is a lifelong Mozart specialist, but she still has new things to say in two of Mozart's most popular piano concertos. You can chalk it up to her Buddhist outlook if you like: her readings of the Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K. 595, and Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, might be described as detached without being lifeless. Her approach is most startling in the Piano Concerto No. 20, where her no-drama shaping of the material runs sharply counter to type. Sample the piano's entrance in the first movement, where it offers a twisting, tense elaboration of the main theme that is far removed from its source material. Generally pianists use this to raise the tension level, but Pires lets the unusually shaped, chromatic line speak for itself with fine effect.

This pair of discs brings together five of the legendary Mozart concerto performances, somewhat reluctantly approved of for publication by Curzon. Curzon was at the same time, a recording artist of choice but also a recording nightmare commercially. There are many of his recordings still in the vaults that were made at considerable expense, but which were then refused permission for publication by Curzon for reasons that few would consider essential.

Here is another gem from PENTATONE's marvellous series of 'Remastered Classics ' in which classic performances from the 1970s, originally recorded in 4-channel quadraphonic sound, are given a new lease of life on SACD and match, or even sometimes exceed in naturalness, many recordings made today.

AAM releases the final volume of an acclaimed project to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra. Fittingly, this final instalment includes three works that in various ways are valedictory: K595 is Mozart’s last completed keyboard concert, while K503 is the last concerto of his Viennese years. Louise Alder joins AAM and Robert Levin in an aria for solo soprano, solo keyboard and orchestra; Ch’io mi scordi di te? is a farewell to one of Mozart’s favourite singers, Nancy Storace.