Piano Concertos Nos. 21 and 24 (Anderszewski)

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 21 & 24, Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Conductor: Piotr Anderszewski, Orchestra/Ensemble: Sinfonia Varsovia. Following his award-winning recording of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Piotr Anderszewski turns to Mozart. Born to Polish-Hungarian parents but trained in France, Anderszewski plays with equal parts elegance and dramatic flair. The rugged opening movement of the C Minor Concerto, for instance, is not as taut and hard-edged as usual, but the pianist's tender touch encompasses a wide range of emotions. The finale has a songful swing that seems as simple as a folk song, yet the angst lies just under the surface. The C Major Concerto, on the other hand, is pure sunlight, with a first movement full of gleaming grandeur, a dreamily delicate slow movement, and a frolicsome finale. Anderszewski conducts the Sinfonia Varsovia from the keyboard, eliciting subtle, colorful playing from this accomplished Polish chamber orchestra. In short, a Mozart recording of exceptional character and individuality from a musician whose career is on the rise.

AMAZON
The Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski first grabbed attention more than a decade ago when, dissatisfied with his playing, he walked off-stage in the middle of a round of the Leeds International Piano Competition. Clearly, none of that strength of character has diminished in the intervening years, with Anderszewski here taking two of Mozart's most oft-recorded concertos and creating something fresh and utterly personal. Too many pianists nowadays seem apologetic to be playing Mozart on a Steinway. Not Anderszewski: he revels in the possibilities of the modern instrument (even down to his own unashamedly big-boned cadenzas) and the results are irresistible. And in Sinfonia Varsovia he has a terrific bunch of musicians--you'd have to search far and wide to find the orchestral parts of these concertos rendered as lovingly or as musically. The interplay with the soloist is invariably beautifully phrased and ideally balanced (just sample the variation-form last movement of the C Minor Concerto). Even the hackneyed "Elvira Madigan" slow movement of K467 is made to sound like new. The recordings themselves are warm yet detailed and the only (minor) disappointment is the somewhat dry booklet note. These performances scintillate the ear and stretch the mind. Period-instrument purists won't like them but anyone else will find them life-enhancing.--Harriet Smith

Number of Discs: 1

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