Barenboim Mozart Piano Concertos

Involving, as it does, three master musicians and a fine chamber orchestra this was never likely to be be other than rewarding. It may not correspond with the ways of playing Mozart at the beginning of the twenty-first century which are fashionable at the beginning of the twenty-first century, but it has virtues – such as high intelligence, sympathy, certainty of purpose, grace, alertness of interplay – which transcend questions of performance practice. Looking at the names of the pianists above, we might be surprised by the presence of Sir Georg Solti, so used are we to thinking of him as a conductor. But the young Solti appeared in public as a pianist from the age of twelve and went on to study piano in Budapest, with Dohnányi and Bartok.

This exceptional production, shot in 1988/1989 on 35 mm film and directed by George Moorse, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and Klaas Rusticus, has been digitally remastered with the greatest care for high-quality audio and video restoration. The music of Mozart has been an essential driving force of Daniel Barenboim’s entire life. It remains central to his performing career both as a pianist and as a conductor. These illuminating performances of Mozart’s last eight great piano concertos admirably demonstrate Barenboim’s dictum that even when a true musician has already performed a familiar work hundreds of times, he or she ‘never accepts that the next note will be played the same way as it was played before’.

This exceptional production, shot in 1988/1989 on 35 mm film and directed by George Moorse, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and Klaas Rusticus, has been digitally remastered with the greatest care for high-quality audio and video restoration. The music of Mozart has been an essential driving force of Daniel Barenboim’s entire life. It remains central to his performing career both as a pianist and as a conductor. These illuminating performances of Mozart’s last eight great piano concertos admirably demonstrate Barenboim’s dictum that even when a true musician has already performed a familiar work hundreds of times, he or she ‘never accepts that the next note will be played the same way as it was played before’.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Complete Piano Concertos Vol. 1
English Chamber Orchestra / Daniel Barenboim, Piano & Direction
4xCD | EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 1,08 GB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: EMI "DRM" # CZS 7 62825 2 | Country/Year: Germany 1989
Genre: Classical | Style: Viennese School, Piano

In the 1960s, while still in his twenties, Daniel Barenboim joined forces with the English Chamber Orchestra to record a groundbreaking set of the complete Mozart Piano Concertos, conducting from the keyboard. Later, he recorded them again with the Berlin Philharmonic, but the English Chamber Orchestra version still has the edge for its bite and beauty, operatic mellifluousness offset by apparently boundless energy and an atmosphere of inspired and intimate music-making from start to finish. Barenboim brings us Mozart in all his many guises, from enfant terrible to founding father and, ultimately, avatar in the term’s original sense.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Complete Piano Concertos Vol. 2
English Chamber Orchestra / Daniel Barenboim, Piano & Direction
4xCD | EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 1,04 GB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: EMI "DRM" # CZS 7 62825 2 | Country/Year: Germany 1989
Genre: Classical | Style: Viennese School, Piano

In the 1960s, while still in his twenties, Daniel Barenboim joined forces with the English Chamber Orchestra to record a groundbreaking set of the complete Mozart Piano Concertos, conducting from the keyboard. Later, he recorded them again with the Berlin Philharmonic, but the English Chamber Orchestra version still has the edge for its bite and beauty, operatic mellifluousness offset by apparently boundless energy and an atmosphere of inspired and intimate music-making from start to finish. Barenboim brings us Mozart in all his many guises, from enfant terrible to founding father and, ultimately, avatar in the term’s original sense.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Complete Piano Concertos Vol. 3
English Chamber Orchestra / Daniel Barenboim, Piano & Direction
2xCD | EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 556 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: EMI "DRM" # CZS 7 62825 2 | Country/Year: Germany 1989
Genre: Classical | Style: Viennese School, Piano

In the 1960s, while still in his twenties, Daniel Barenboim joined forces with the English Chamber Orchestra to record a groundbreaking set of the complete Mozart Piano Concertos, conducting from the keyboard. Later, he recorded them again with the Berlin Philharmonic, but the English Chamber Orchestra version still has the edge for its bite and beauty, operatic mellifluousness offset by apparently boundless energy and an atmosphere of inspired and intimate music-making from start to finish. Barenboim brings us Mozart in all his many guises, from enfant terrible to founding father and, ultimately, avatar in the term’s original sense.

Ronald Brautigam, with the congenial support of Die Kölner Akademie, under Michael Alexander Willens, here performs Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 24 and 25, both composed in 1786. The C major concerto is in fact one of the most expansive of all classical piano concertos, rivalling Beethoven’s fifth concerto. Their grandeur immediately made them popular fare in the concert hall – Mendelssohn, for instance, had No.24 in his repertoire through the 1820s and 1830s.

This is all-around a great recording. I want to principally address the C major concerto (#13 K. 415), as it is light years beyond the early 6th, and warrants a bit more consideration. Before purchasing this record, I had previously only heard the C major once, and I can't even remember the soloist or orchestra (maybe Barenboim); consequently, I was a bit hesitant to go ahead and buy it. However, it has surely become one of my favorite Mozart piano concertos. This is in no small part due to the extraordinary first movement, which, barring the last of the 19th and the 1st of the 20th, would certainly be my favorite in any of the Mozart piano concerti.