Mozart Piano Concertos No. 20, 23
CD 98.142
© Hänssler 1997
Cannes Classical Award: Best Solo with Orchestra - 18th Century, 1999
Tracks
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, KV 446
-
1Allegro
-
2Romance
-
3Rondo (Allegro assai)
Cadenza by Beethoven
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488
-
4Allegro
-
5Adagio
-
6Allegro assai
Cadenza by Mozart
Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Neville Marriner, cond.
Reviews
Unmatched
In the field of many, there is one. Of all the Mozart piano concertos in the current catalog, the search for a favoriate is long and time consuming. The reason that is true for me is that I have yet to find just the right combination of player, orchestra, and CD sound. That just changed with this CD. Marriner and the ASMF have been doing Mozart since 1959 and this is the Mozart orchestra and conductor I trust the most. Moravec, too, has been doing this a long time and has taken his Mozart through all the stages to arrive here. This combination of player, conductor, orchestra and CD sound is unmatched in these works. It is just simply Mozart.
Moravecs Romantic Vision Of Mozart
Without a doubt, Moravec is one of our finest pianists. Having heard him play a great recital program last year at Carnegie Hall which featured music by Debussy, Mozart and Janacek, I was eagerly looking forward to hearing this CD. Moravec gives a vibrant, Romantic interpretation of Mozarts 20th piano concerto that is the most stirring Ive heard; its certainly a far cry from Brendels austere approach. As for the 23rd Piano Concerto, Moravecs playing conveys more of a Classical interpretation than Romantic, but it is still marked by much vibrant warmth. I dont have to emphasize Sir Neville Marriners excellence as a fine interpreter of Mozart; both he and the Academy are in splendid form as accompanists...The sound quality is splendid.
Andante.com
I regard Barenboim and Moravec as masters of comparable stature and parallel virtues two of the greatest pianist-musicians of our day, and two of the supreme Mozarteans.
The D-Minor Concerto is a fairly recent addition to Ivan Moravec's repertoire, but ... he first recorded K 488 in 1974, and that version, with Josef Vlach and the Czech Chamber Orchestra, is still available on Supraphon in a generous coupling with the E-Major and C-Major concertos, K 449 and K 503. The last-named work was effectively superseded, in Moravec's own discography, by a new Hänssler Classics recording coupled with the C-Minor Concerto, which I reviewed enthusiastically in Fanfare 20:3.
Moravec's interpretation of this dark and tempestuous concerto has all of the expected intensity, drama, and lyricism, and his tone is as magically lambent as ever. I regret the absence of an Eingang at measure 166 in the finale. The cadenzas, by the way, are Beethoven's, and are not abbreviated as you could be forgiven for inferring from the rather vague annotation. K 488 is, under Moravec's hands, no less beautiful than before. As was the case with his second version of K 503, his new tempi are fractionally slower in the outer movements and distinctly faster in the Adagio, which is stylistically to the good. ... connoisseurs devoted to this wonderful pianist will obviously want both recordings on their shelves.
Schwann Opus
Ivan Moravec is simply one of the great pianists alive today. His reputation rests on superlative performances and recordings of a limited repertoire in which he really is supreme: Debussy, Chopin, Brahms, and Mozart. Never having enjoyed a long-term relationship with a major label, he has seen his recordings go in and out of the catalogue; we can only hope that his association with this distinguished label remains long and fruitful. He certainly deserves the recognition.
I have no hesitation in recommending this recording (the second in a projected series) as the finest Mozart concerto disc in many, many years. Every note is alive with meaning, the soloist capturing perfectly the tension between structure and spontaneity that is the essence of Mozart’s concerto form. In the moody and dramatic D minor concerto, Moravec captures the gloomy tone of his entrance perfectly, but is not afraid to explode with bursts of pianistic rage where the music calls for it. This is not “small scale” playing. He calls upon the full resources of the modern piano, but never overwhelms the music - he’s simply adapted its range to the scale of the instrument, as all great musicians will.
The A major concerto - that paragon of Mozartean elegance - is similarly successful, with a slow movement to die for and an absolutely delicious finale. Marriner and the Academy certainly know this music, but as with all of Sir Neville’s work for this label, his accompaniments give no hint of routine. His performance is as fresh and invigorating as Moravec’s, making this a true partnership. The excellent recorded sound certainly helps too: the balance between piano and orchestra is ideal, while the overall acoustic lends the music both warmth and naturalness. An outstanding disc in every way.
American Record Guide
These [Hänssler 98.142 and 98.955] are from 1996 and 7 but are only now being released in the USA. Frankly, I have little interest in Mozart concerto recordings, because there have been so many bad ones and there are a handful of great ones that are unlikely to be surpassed. But when I saw the pianist's name, I knew that he could give the great performances a run for their money. He has recorded at least 23 and 25 before - in the mid-1970s for Supraphon. We reviewed the CD reissues in January/February 1997, writing of Moravec's uncommon degree of eloquence and idiomatic style and concluding that no one conveys the spirit and beauty of this music better. I was not fond of the Czech Chamber Orchestra that accompanied him in those recordings, so I was glad to see Marriner at the helm here. His accompaniments for Brendel (Philips) were terrific.
The orchestra here is about 55 musicians - enough to give it heft - and they sound great. Often in Mozart piano concertos the orchestra leaves something to be desired - but not here. Nor can anyone complain that Marriner is too glib, though he has been sometimes in the past. I think it likely that Moravec won him over and helped draw excellent orchestral work out of him and his musicians. I have never heard a better orchestra in 20, for example - not Szell and Cleveland, not the Philharmonia or the LSO. And no recording was engineered as well as this one. In fact, this is the best 20.
Speaking of glibness, you'll never hear it from Moravec. There's almost a wide-eyed wonder to his playing, and where many a pianist would polish off a phrase to show what a consummate professional he is, Moravec plays it as if it is new and fresh and important - as if he finds it utterly fascinating.
In 20, some prefer a slower II (the Romance); if so, Ingrid Haebler's recording is the one to have - it's a minute longer. Moravec is about average in tempo, and it never seems too fast. Again in that movement I am impressed that nothing sounds glib. Moravec refuses to treat it like old hat, to make it sound like he's played it dozens of times. He seems to think about every phrase but still avoid sounding halting or stop-and-go.
When it comes to 23 and 24 the competition is incredible: Curzon, Kempff, Kovacevich, Zacharias, Barenboim, Haebler, Ashkenazy. I couldn't part with any of them (in 24 Curzon and Zacharias remain fully competitive with Moravec in every respect; in 23 Curzon certainly does), but these Hänssler recordings stand up very well. Again there is the gorgeous orchestral support, beautifully captured by the engineers, with plenty of brass and heft. That is never any better anywhere else. Again there is the innocence of the playing - a naive simplicity that makes many another pianist sound too sophisticated. Again there are perfect tempos and perfectly judged phrasing. Why have we had to wait so long for Marriner and Moravec? The music belongs to them. ...
I wonder if we'll get 21, 22, 26, and 27 from this great team.
Amazon.com listener
Marriner's credentials as a distinguished Mozartean are well-known and need no elaboration here. Moravec too has been playing Mozart beautifully for many years. I have a “cold war” recording of his from the mid-'60's where Mozart's gorgeous K. 475 Fantasy is coupled with Piano Concerto no. 25. His approach to Mozart has always been romantic, carrying a rich and full-bodied sound, and this tradition continues here.
No. 20 is, along with no. 24, Mozart's most anguished concerto, and Moravec and Marriner bring out its full emotional range in a manner that leaves Perahia and Uchida in the dust. Not since Barenoim's EMI recording have I been so moved by an interpretation of this work. No. 23 is taken more lightly and briskly, as it should be, but if you want to hear how effortlessly Mozart could mask complex heartbreak with deceptively simple lyricism, listen to this concerto's slow movement. It's unforgettable.
Marriner and Moravec have also collaborated on no.'s 24 and 25, and I'd recommend that as highly as I do this recording. I was lucky enough to see Moravec perform Mozart in 1991, and he's a true artist. If you're new to these concertos, then wait no longer--a whole range of undiscovered delights await you. If you have a recording of these concertos you're happy with, give this a try too. I'm sure Moravec will bring forth new insights into these pieces you thought you knew so well.
Andante
The Franck recalls something of Cortot's proud rhetoric, while Moravec thoroughly matches Rubinstein's sparkle and style. The pianist takes the stage for himself in Kinderszenen... and invests Schumann's evocative cycle with original touches that only fortify what the composer had in mind.
Répertoire des disques compacts
J'ai déjà relaté ici que Rudolf Firkusny considérait Ivan Moravec comme le grand génie méconnu parmi les artistes tchèques. L'interprétation par ce demier de la trilogie beethovénienne Pathétique-Clair de lune-Appassionata (VAI, 10 de Répertoire) nous avait démontré que Firkusny était parfaitement lucide. Et cet enregistrement lumineux le confirme.
Ceux qui avaient intronisé jadis Serkin-Abbado “ grands sages ” de la discographie mozartienne en seront pour leurs frais en comparant leurs héros à ces enregistrements-ci : Moravec et Marriner nous délivrent un modèle de concentration, de pudeur, d'humanité et d'intelligence, sans jamais scléroser, épaissir ou pontifier le texte mozartien.
En premier (comme dans Beethoven) on sera frappé par l'indescriptible noblesse et richesse du toucher du pianiste tchèque. Ses mouvements lents sont de véritables “ Passions ” humaines intériorisées (surtout, évidemment, le fa dièse mineur du 23e Concerto). Écoutez comment s'éteint la “ Romance ” du 20e Concerto, ou même l'entrée en matière pianistique de cette méme œuvre : tout est dit avec une modestie, une classe, une aura bouleversantes. Mais partout ailleurs, au détour d'une phrase, le poids donné à une note, l'évanouissement d'une sonorité, la simple poésie d'un phrasé nous émeuvent.
Moravec, sans jamais alourdir le toucher (écoutez la retenue des forte dans la section à 6'40-7'35 du développement dans le volet initial du K. 466), donne évidemment du poids à Mozart, loin de la volubilité des chambristes chaleureux (Barenboïm et Perahia) : la destinée humaine à travers la partition lui importe plus que le charme immédiat du dialogue concertant. Et pourtant, écoutez ces envols quasi juvéniles dans le Finale du 23e Concerto...
Neville Marriner est tout à fait en phase avec son soliste : il sait que ce témoignage sera bien davantage qu'un “ disque de plus ” dans sa discographie mozartienne, qui n'a finalement vraiment déçu que dans sa collaboration concertante avec Alfred Brendel. Il ne lâche jamais la bride de son Academy et colore à l'infini ces concertos en imposant un engagement forcené à des bois somptueux. Écoutez l'engagement et le souci de la polyphonie dès la première introduction : vous serez vite convaincus...
Voilà donc un très grand disque pour mozartiens confirmés. Pour un premier abord, le coffret EMI Rouge et Noir de Barenboïm reste évidemment le choix évident, d'autant plus qu'il offre les Concertos nos 9, 21 et 27 en prime ! La note éditoriale sanctionne une traduction assez scolaire d'un bon texte allemand.
Album notes
Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor K. 466
Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor K. 466 “This is without a doubt the land of the keyboard, the best place in the world for my art,” wrote Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to his father in early March 1782, nearly a year after his relocation to Vienna. Indeed, Mozart had achieved great success - both artistic and financial - with his Lent Concerts (the performance of operas was not allowed during the Christian Lent season). He had initially collaborated with the concert impresario P.I. Martin, who had been “granted the right by Imperial decree to give twelve concerts in the Augarten.” Later, however, Mozart organized his own concerts, called Akademien. Unfortunately, he saw himself increasingly exposed to negative criticism, for his works had begun to diverge too strongly from the sphere of social, “galant” music. In Cramers Magazin für Musik, for example, he is compared with a truly insignificant composer in a less than flattering light: “Whereas Kozeluch’s works are played repeatedly and enjoyed everywhere, Mozart’s do not afford the same enjoyment. It is also undeniable that he has a pronounced predilection for the difficult and unusual.” Another critic distinguished between Mozart and Boccherini as follows: “What a difference there is between Mozart and Boccherini! The former leads us through jagged gorges into tangled forests sparsely strewn with flowers; the latter leads us to sunny clearings with flowery knolls...”
Few music lovers today would call Mozart’s D minor Concerto K. 466 “tangled”. There is, however, an unmistakable melancholy that is his alone and which Mozart’s contemporaries quickly and accurately recognized.
And melancholy was no way to draw audiences in Vienna. Dismayed, they named away from Mozart. The D minor Piano Concerto was given its premiere two years before Don Giovanni, which is also in the same key. The concerto’s genesis is typical of Mozart’s work method. Leopold Mozart wrote to his daughter: “Wolfgang performed an excellent new concerto on which the copyist was still working when we arrived. Your brother did not even have time to play through the Rondo, since he had to check the parts.” Unless he resorted to simplified improvisations, even the nimble Mozart must have been somewhat aflutter at having to sightread the technically and musically demanding finale! The shift from the purely virtuoso concerto to the symphonic piece for solo and orchestra had finally been consummated in this work (he wrote only one more concerto in a minor key, K. 491 in C minor).
The dramatically pulsating syncopations of the main theme are reserved for the tutti. The soloist provides a contrast with an elegiac secondary theme featuring completely new material. It, in its turn, is reserved for the solo instrument and is not heard once in the orchestral part.
As the movement unfolds, Mozart weaves the orchestral and the solo parts into a dense fabric of motivic and contrapuntal relationships while retaining the antagonism between the solo instrument and the tutti. One of the earliest cadenzas for the first and last movements written after Mozart’s death is from Beethoven, who greatly admired this concerto and no doubt intended to do Mozart’s widow a favor. A number of pianists today find this cadenza too long and either shorten it or play their own.
Bridging the first and last movements, the Romanze would be a veritable oasis of mellifluousness if it were not for the passionate middle section which harks back to the first movement while anticipating the atmosphere of the finale. In this middle section, Mozart paid homage to the style of his great idol Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, one of the “inventors” of the musical “Sturm und Drang”. There are also a number of parallels in Haydn’s symphonic works of those years, which is not surprising since Haydn also thought highly of C.P. E. Bach.
Between the first and last movements is a congruence such as is rarely found in a minor-key piece by Mozart. It is not until the entrance of the major mode that a conciliatory gesture brightens the work just before its close.
Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major K. 488
The A major Concerto, written one year after the dark-hued D minor Concerto, seems to look back to the idyllic world of earlier years. Actually, however, it was one of Mozart’s last attempts to satisfy the conservative taste of the Viennese. Like his earlier concertos, Mozart most likely also wrote this piece for one of his “Akademien”, though it is not known for which. The number of subscribers had dwindled breathtakingly, leaving practically only Baron van Swieten as one of the last diehards who paid his subscription in advance.
If they had wanted, the Viennese could have found in this work everything that they loved: the long orchestral introduction presented by the strings and taken up by the woodwind in a contrasting tone colour; the repetition of the exposition by the soloist who seems at pains not to disturb the galant, serene gesture of the music. As is often the case with Mozart, the development introduces a third theme which plays a central role. The cadenza was written by Mozart.
The second movement begins with a 12-bar piano introduction which presents one of Mozart’s loveliest melodies, comparable to that of the second movement of the Clarinet Concerto K. 622. This is the only example of a piano concerto which uses the key of F-sharp minor; the entire scheme of the keys is extraordinarily refined. Mozart no doubt profusely ornamented the melody part whenever he played the work himself; this is confirmed by a copy made by his pupil Barbara Ployer which was found in his estate. Whether a performer today would dare attempt something like this or whether he prefers keeping to the “Urtext” is a matter best left to each soloist.
The rondo finale abounds in a lively and - intentionally - rather disorganized interplay of themes and motifs. And if the listener should find the cheerful mood familiar, he needn’t look far. The concerto was written while Mozart was working on The Marriage of Figaro. Like the opera, it maintains a delicate balance between boisterous high spirits and gentle melancholy. Mozart was no doubt acutely aware of the work’s artistic value; otherwise, he would not have offered to sell it, along with some symphonies and chamber works, to the Prince of Donaueschingen, a musical connoisseur. The fact that he even agreed to the compromise of replacing his beloved clarinet with violin and viola parts shows how much the potential purchase mattered to him.
