Mozart Piano Concerti 17 18 @ Amazon.com
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Mozart’s birth and early years Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on the 27th of January 1756 and was such a child prodigy that his father Leopold sacrificed his own musical career to concentrate on instructing his son full-time. By the time he was five, Mozart had composed his basi pieces for piano and could play blindfolded. He begun touring Europe with his father and older sister Nannerl and impressed audiences everyplace they went. He was so gifted that at only 13 years old he was appointed the Concert Master at Salzburg, Austria, by the Archbishop there. He made musical tours of Italy from 1769 to 1771 and fell in love with opera and choral works. He was so impressed with Allegri’s Miserere when he heard it in Rome in the Sistine Chapel that he hurried home and wrote it out by hand from memory. On another fateful European tour, he traveled to Mannheim, Germany, to listen what was said to be the continent’s greatest orchestra, and there he fell in love with Aloysia Weber. But there were not a heap of occupation prospect there, so he headed to Paris, where he was struggling to pay the bills and his beloved mother died. Once back in Salzburg, he was so gravely behaved that even the Archbishop grew tired of him, gifted altho he was, and dismissed him. A flourishing career in Vienna He headed to Vienna in 1781 to try to make his living as a freelance composer and performer without a wealthy patron. In 1782 he married his former love Aloysia’s sister Constanza, much to his father’s disapproval. However, his musical career begun to flourish when his opera The Abduction from the Seraglio (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) was a big hit. He then embarked on a series of concerts with him playing his own piano concertos as soloist and likewise serving as conductor. He became friends with another gifted composer, Joseph Haydn, and begun to study Bach and Handel. He also became an ardent Freemason in 1784 and served in the same lodge with Hayden. He also tried to convert his father Leopold and succeeded before he passed away in 1787. Financial difficultnesses and tragic death Mozart always had cash worries as an independent composer and performer and was forced to borrow cash and move his family to cheap lodgings in the suburbs. His fortunes seemed to be bettering in the final year of his life, as he produced a lot of of his greatest works, including The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), his last piano concerto, (the K. 595 in B-flat), the Clarinet Concert, and his Requiem, sadly left unfinished. His finances bettered for a time and he seemed to be on the brink of great success when he abruptly passed away on the 5th of December 1791. Thanks to the ordinary play “Amadeus,” some have speculated that he was poisoned by the rival composer Antonio Salieri, but that is in all probability pure fiction. Mozart was buried in an unmarked grave, which was in accordance with the Austrian customs of the time and in all probability did not indicate that he passed away a pauper as galore have claimed. All of the memorial services and concerts in his honor after his death were well attended, as befitting one of the biggest composers of classical music in the West. Most helpful customer reviews 35 of 36 people found the following review helpful. This really is a complete set, as not only do we get the two concert rondos, but also the double and triple piano concertos as well. In both of these Ashkenazy is joined by Barenboim, and, in the three-piano work, Fou Ts’ong. I found both performances intimate, enjoyable affairs, reminiscent, I believe, of what Mozart intended – without the ‘slackness’ identified in the original ‘Penguin Stereo Record Guide’ review, which also found ‘both artists self-conscious’.
The recordings are excellent, with about half of them being digital. The piano is faithfully reproduced and orchestral detail refreshingly present. My only regret is that in No.17 the piano is inexplicably set further back than in the other recordings, and so some nimble fingerwork on Ashkenazy’s part is lost beneath the orchestral tuttis, the problem being at its worst in the first movement. This, of course, is a matter of taste, and the ‘Penguin Guide’ says of this concerto in particular that the ‘balance between soloist and orchestra [is] finely judged’. Oh well, you can’t please everyone. This, however, being my only complaint about this set, I can warmly recommend it to any prospective buyer. 36 of 38 people found the following review helpful. The Ashkenazy set is really the winner. Perahia’s cycle is marred by questionable recording. The sound is not focused and there is a distortion which gets really annoying. Barenboim was too inexperienced when he made his cycle. Brendel? I would say he is more a Beethovenian than Mozartian. The real winner is Ashkenazy with the supreme technique and wherewithal to realize Mozart’s genius. His technique allows him to play faster than his competitors. For instance, the final movement of No.21 is given the fastest and most thrilling rendition by Ashkenazy. As one reviewer pointed out below, the sound quality provided by Decca is also the best and most vivid. If you’re a Mozart freak like me, you would just get all 4 cycles. Especially now that the cycles are available at this super cheap rate, I would very very highly recommend this Ashkenazy cycle. 26 of 28 people found the following review helpful. I have owned this set now for nearly half a decade and I am still surprised by Ashkenazy’s level of musicianship. Not that I have ever doubted his skill, rather, I am still amazed that this master of Rachmaninoff and the romantics approaches these pieces so perfectly. Ashkenazy plays these concertos as they should be played. His typical sense of drama is somewhat subdued, replaced with a sublime sense of delicacy and classical phrasing. He brings out the beautiful chromaticism, the magical melodies, and the pure beauty of Mozart effortlessly. What is even more wonderful is that the orchestral accompaniment is top notch. Although these are not period performances, the Philharmonia plays with a classical grace and level of perfection that push these performances over the top. The orchestra’s sound is full, accompanying Ashkenazy’s “full” sound quite well. As mentioned above, Ashkenazy (who conducts these performances from the piano) instills in the orchestra the perfect balance of classical grace and dramatic flair. Finally, the recorded sound is flawless. This set is so appealing to me because Ashkenazy approaches these performances in an organized, coherent fashion. Unlike his set of the Beethoven concertos (where Ashkenazy’s technique, phrasing, and ultimate interpretation is dramatically different in each concerto), Ashkenazy maintains a sense of classical style throughout the cycle. And not only are the interpretations so consistent, but the sound is as well. It almost seems as if all the concertos were recorded in one session. Moments like this are rare in music. There are certainly individual performances of the concertos that may be more appealing here or there, but all in all Ashkenazy’s cycle delivers the most consistently fresh, powerful, and beautiful interpretations. For those that are not sure they want to invest so much for this set, look into Decca’s CD of the “Big Six” concertos (20-25) on two CDs. But you would be missing out. Ashkenazy does not “run through” the earlier concertos but actually plays them all as if they were all equally masterful. I highly recommend this set. It is a wonderful musical investment. |
Consistently delightful