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Mozart: Piano Concertos nos 10, 19 & 20 / Rabinovitch, Argerich
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Alexandre Rabinovitch, Martha Argerich
Mozart: Piano Concertos nos 10, 19 & 20 / Rabinovitch, Argerich
Genre: Classical
 
  •  Track Listings (9) - Disc #1

These are glorious performances of three very different piano concerti by Mozart. No. 19 (K. 459) is a handsome showpiece, filled with dramatic turns for the soloist; No. 10 (K. 365) for two pianos is simply lovely; and No...  more »

     

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Synopsis

Amazon.com essential recording
These are glorious performances of three very different piano concerti by Mozart. No. 19 (K. 459) is a handsome showpiece, filled with dramatic turns for the soloist; No. 10 (K. 365) for two pianos is simply lovely; and No. 20 (K. 466) is a deeply felt, intricately woven, brooding, but finally exultant masterpiece. Martha Argerich tears into No. 20's darkness with great fury, abetted by Rabinovitch's tense, turmoil-filled accompaniment; she plays Beethoven's appropriately heavy cadenzas with brilliance, and her headlong blaze into the final movement is breathtaking. Rabinovitch plays and leads No. 19 with charm and virtuosity. And the two pianists zip through K. 365 as if it were a delicious ice-cream sundae, which, frankly, it is. A terrific disc, highly recommended. --Robert Levine

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CD Reviews

A new way with Mozart
John Grabowski | USA | 01/21/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This disc is most important in the Mozart catalog, despite the dismissive comments from some poorly-informed listeners here. In an age where genteel Mozart dominates, these bold, masculine recordings are a new way of looking at old relics, and quite frankly probably closer to the way Wolfie intended. Over the centuries Mozart has become the man-child in most interpretors' hands (see the chapter "The Myth of the Eternal Child" in Solomon's biography, _Mozart, A Life_) and this recording makes one finally able to imagine the Mozart who had stubble, who was a man and not a boy. The comment that Argerich can scarcely be expected to negotiate this music after her bold "recent" Rachmaninoff 3rd recording should just be ignored: the Rach 3 disc is not recent but from 1983, and she no longer plays the Rach in her repertoire, and it was clearly far from her mind when she made these recordings. (Her style in the two discs bear no more than a superficial relation.) But she does attack all music with force and conviction, and is not for the faint-hearted. She challenges conventions...I thought this is what artists (like Mozart himself) were supposed to do."
Good but not all that needed
Santa Fe Listener | 07/10/1999
(4 out of 5 stars)

"With a market already overladen with Mozart Piano Concerti, any new arrival had best offer something extraordinarily novel. After her fairly recent smash-bang performance of Rachmaninoff's Third, Martha Argerich would hardly be expected to negotiate the delicate balances demanded by Mozart. Her latest Teldec offering of Mozart's (4509 98407-2) with co-pianist Alexandre Rabinovich and the Wurtembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn under Jorg Faerber gives us some splendid playing here, some interesting sounds there, but I cannot see this replacing some of the older recordings of these same pieces. On the other hand, if one does not already have these pieces in the collection, then by all means give this one a chance. I think you will especially like the No. 10 in E flat for two pianos and orchestra."
Classic Argerich
GOH AIK GUAN | Singapore, Singapore Singapore | 12/16/1999
(4 out of 5 stars)

"When one listens to Argerich, one must expect the extraordinary. Not for her is the run of the mill performance which conventional wisdom associates with the "correct" style. She is here to offer gems of ideas of how a composer's work can be intepreted. Her rendition of the D minor Concerto is classic Argerich. Her tone colour (eg.with brlliant use of the una corda), "fantasique" use of rubato and how she makes the music soar make one realise how exciting Mozart music can be. I would rank her D minor rendition with Clara Haskil's (listen to how she ends her cadenza in the 1st movt; the almost unbearable tension and well-gradated crescendo; ditto for Haskil). Different in their own ways, but similar in how they each imprint their individualism in the work. My only problem was with the 1st movt of the F maj. The approach is affected, and I cannot quite understand some of the things she does (eg. tempo rubato at some points) which seem to be idiosyncracies. Her approach seems to be too robust for something so dainty. I would go for Alicia De Larocha's 1st movt for her transparency and simplicity. But Argerich's 2nd movt and 3rd are classic, esp her statement of the 1st subject of the 3rd movt after the first "small" cadenza: the deliberateness in which she reiterates the theme after that, seems almost as if she has not got over her musing in the cadenza. Strongly recommended for students and music lover who want something that goes beyond the jaded renditions of Mozart, and of course for Argerich fans, which I count myself as one."