Mozart Biss

The first in a five-instalment series from pianist Jonathan Biss, pairing the piano concertos of Beethoven with newly commissioned concertos. Volume One pairs Beethoven’s Emperor concerto with Australian composer Brett Dean’s ‘A Winter’s Journey’.

The first in a five-instalment series from pianist Jonathan Biss, pairing the piano concertos of Beethoven with newly commissioned concertos. Volume One pairs Beethoven’s Emperor concerto with Australian composer Brett Dean’s ‘A Winter’s Journey’.

In 2015, pianist Jonathan Biss initiated the Beethoven/5 commissioning project with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and more than fifteen other orchestras, resulting in a groundbreaking collaboration over nine years. The project yielded five extraordinary new piano works by some of today’s most significant composers, responding to Beethoven’s own concerti. The first volume, recorded with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, features Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto and Brett Dean’s companion piece, “Gneixendorfer Musik, A Winter’s Journey”.

For Mozart, wind instruments had their own voices, full of warmth and tenderness, as much as singers did, and his concertos are animated with an operatic sense of drama. His own experience as a violinist allowed him to write five concertos for the instrument that are full of sparky virtuosity, here conveyed with sovereign authority by Henryk Szeryng. This collection (originally released as part of the legendary Philips Classics Mozart Edition) is full of truly authoritative performances featuring internationally acclaimed artists.

A 10 CD Box set with 23 Beautiful Mozart Piano Concertos. Alfred Brendel playing piano. Imogen Cooper also on piano. Accompanied by Academy of St. Martin-In-The-Fields orchestra. Conducted by Neville Marriner. This set is wonderful: Brendel is at the peak of his art, the conductor and the Orchestra are perfect, the sound is clear and old fashionable, very recommended.

Le nozze di Figaro has been Glyndebourne’s signature opera since the company was founded in 1934 and Glyndebourne is responsible for bringing Mozart back into the currency of English musical life. An obvious choice with which to launch Glyndebourne’s own label in 2008. This 1962 recording features a vintage cast with Heinz Blankenburg in the title role, Mirella Freni as Susanna, who had made her international breakthrough at Glyndebourne in the summer of 1961.