BaL 08.06.24 - Mozart: Piano concerto 23 in A major, K488

[Nick Armstrong]

The Sokolov arrived yesterday and it is indeed very entertaining, not a BAL choice as it's too individual but your really should hear it.

Yes, have now listened a couple of times - enjoyed it very much. I really like the bits where he adds some piano ‘continuo’ to orchestral passages!

The Rachmaninov 3 pairing is a strange affair, not least as poor old Grigory had a pretty ramshackle instrument in that concert - some definite ‘bar room Joanna’ vibes! Fortunately the Mozart performance is from a different concert!

[richardfinegold]

Agree, but the fly in the ointment is the huge variation in recording quality / sound in this cycle. Ranges from excellent right down to 'rough'. I do find this a distraction, if listening to two or three of the concertos in one session. Maybe that's just me being 'picky' - I don't know.

I have been playing through the Perahia cycle since it arrived here a few days ago and I haven’t noticed anything objectionable about the engineering

[mikealdren]

The Sokolov arrived yesterday and it is indeed very entertaining, not a BAL choice as it's too individual but your really should hear it.

[vinteuil]

Is this the Rubinstein/Barbirolli or are there other Rubinstein versions? .

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-Piano-Concertos-Major-488/dp/B01D42GJPK

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[smittims]

Arthur Rubinstein made another recording in 1961 with Josef Krips conducting 'The RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra' which I believe was a London Orchestra adopting this oft-used pseudonym for the day. I thik JohnCulshaw was involved , as I remember his saying how Rubinstein pleaded with him to palance the sound of the piano forward, so it may have been one of the British RCA recordings made by Decca. I'm sorry I don't have any definite details. .

[Nick Armstrong]

Does anyone understand why she started with Andsnes, seemed to like it and made no critical comment, and then never mentioned it again?

Very odd, indeed - particularly as LP enthused about how together everyone sounded, despite Andsnes coming in at a markedly different tempo to the orchestral introduction, as if the piano entry was from a different ‘take’. I wasn’t sorry the reviewer ignored it after that, but it was a bizarre waste of time.

I found it a pretty woolly BAL generally (the chat about the slow movement was especially vacant), interesting only for a couple of the performances I hadn’t heard before. It reminded me why Alicia de Larrocha is one of my favourite pianists - yet I’d never heard her in this concerto; and the Sokolov was very entertaining.

I’ll be investigating both those (having been familiar with the ‘winner’ since the 1980s - gorgeous indeed)

[french frank]

The Haskil has that time standing still quality in the slow movement shared with Perahia and Uchida but, alas, not to my ears with de Larrocha.

Coincidentally, I was listening only last night to my off-air concert recording of De Larrocha's Goyescas, which she followed with the K475 Fantasia: I silently deleted that one from my computer.

[oliver sudden]

( even if Rubinstein's omission is less of a surprise) .

Is this the Rubinstein/Barbirolli or are there other Rubinstein versions? That one wouldn’t be my Single Library Choice but it’s an absolute must-hear for my money. It’s so alive, the spontaneity of it is incredible.

[HighlandDougie]

Rather ordinary orchestral playing and a slightly oddly balanced (and rather aged) recording aside, the Clara Haskil recording which I listened to earlier was simply in a different league from that of Christian Zacharias, plucked at random
also from the shelves. The Haskil has that time standing still quality in the slow movement shared with Perahia and Uchida but, alas, not to my ears with de Larrocha.

[Opinionated Knowall]

... Brautigam, Levin, Schoonderwoerd, V Sofronitzky, Schiff, Demus, Zacharias, Ashkenazy, Anda, Goode...

On the HIP front, can I give shout out for Robert Levin/Christopher Hogwood? If this recording has been mentioned, I missed it. Levin's sense of fantasy, an improvisatory spontaneity, I find irresistable! And would second your recommendation of Richard Goode, wonderfully refined and cultured playing.

[MickyD]

I have six CDs of his on the accent label, with his ensemble cristofori

https://www.prestomusic.com/search?search_query=schoonderwoerd%20mozart

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Goodness, I missed those. I used to follow all of Accent's activity avidly but now they seem to issue more releases than I can keep up with. Definitely missed those CDs. Looking at the blurb on the Presto site, it would appear that Accent intend a complete cycle. Will they make it, I wonder?

[Barbirollians]

The coupling of K459 and K488 ECO/Perahia I had on cassette until it pretty much snapped . One of my other favourite records in the series was K450 and K451 - agree that K503 was a relative disappointment.

[smittims]

Sadly, that false image of Mozart persisted for many years. In Britainand America, Sir Thomas Beecham was one of those who showed how much more there was to Mozart's music.

[Retune]

I am listening to the Perahia K.467 that was the discmate for the featured work and loving the rhythmic freedom that M.P. takes in the slow movement.

At school, we were taught about Mozart in a rather unappealing way, emphasising his talents as a child prodigy who was made to seem rather irritating, a china doll composer of merely pretty tunes. Or maybe I was just being clueless. When I started to buy my own music, a cassette that paired Perahia's K466 and K467 was one of the first recordings that showed me exactly how wrong this was.

[oliver sudden]

They’re with Accent (if I may…oh, vinteuil was quicker). I had reviewed some of his Beethovens and happily signed up for the first Mozarts but in general didn’t find them as satisfying. I did hear his 21 the other day though and enjoyed it more than I remembered so I might cautiously investigate the ones I’ve missed.