Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Daniel Barenboim, English Chamber Orchestra :: Mozart: The Complete Piano Concertos [Box Set]

An OK starting point

A. J. Robb | Los Angeles, CA | 07/17/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I guess if you "just want the music" of all Mozart's piano concertos, then this is a good buy; but unlike the previous reviewer, I think that the last A Major and B flat leave something to be desired- namely musical cadenzas. Of the whole set, the early to middle works come out the best with the most authentic flavor. Mozart's later Vienna works present more of a challenge to the super-talented Barenboim, for there appears to be a strange tendency to vascillate between very romantic points, and those equally dry. Few Mozart recordings exist where you will hear a better rapport between soloist and orchestra, but there is this nagging feeling that it could have been done better with a separate conductor.



There are so many ways to play Mozart effectively, it's unfortunate that Barenboim's performances of the later concertos aren't as moving as they could be. If you're looking for a great combination of performances, Barenboim is a good choice for the earlier ones. Alfred Brendel with Neville Marriner, and Richard Goode with the conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra both have superior complete cycles out, while Ashkenazy and Uchida really shine in the later concertos (not as much earlier, however). Ashkenazy plays up Mozart's romantic side, Uchida takes an ice-water "touch-me-not" reading of the music.



Few pianists, however, can claim the title "Mozartian" as well as the late pianist Clifford Curzon. I don't know that he has a complete cycle out in one box, but you can rarely go wrong with him.



Barenboim's is a strong submission, but there are better, and I would suggest those.



EDIT: As the commenter below rightly corrects, Richard Goode/Orpheus do not have a complete cycle out. I should also rectify a grievous omission: Murray Perahia also has a FANTASTIC complete cycle (with inconsistent audio quality) out, which may be unsurpassed in its elegance."

Mozart Masterpieces in a Mini Package.

John Austin | Kangaroo Ground, Australia | 04/28/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mozart's piano concertos occupy a very special place amongst his works. Circumstances enabled him to become regarded in Vienna as composer and performer when he presented twelve of the later concertos to an appreciative audience in Vienna in the 1780s. His letters reveal how personal and important these works were to him. The piano concertos also show how he could imbue a musical form with a depth and a breadth that no one before, and few since, has encompassed. EMI invited Daniel Barenboim to record the complete series, with the English Chamber Orchestra, as conductor and soloist. The recordings were made at London's Abbey Road Studios between 1967 and 1974. In CD form, in a little box that will occupy only the width of an average size book on you shelf, the performances were re-released, sounding warm, natural and detailed, in 1998. All the solo piano concertos are here, together with two rondos for piano and orchestra.Other pianists might produce a better effect here or there, or provide different inflections and nuances that are appropriate, but Barenboim's interpretations seem to me to be totally satisfying. He uses what Mozart cadenzas have survived and elsewhere provides either his own or those written by creative keyboard players of an earlier generation such as Edwin Fischer and Wanda Landowska. Recordings have not yet been able to capture the spatial dynamics that seems so magical at an actual performance of a Mozart piano concerto. You can't yet hear and see that only the wind section of the orchestra is playing, or that the trumpet is announcing from the back of the stage that the D Minor Concerto is about to finish. Meanwhile, recordings such as this will help keep great music alive in your head and your home."

Delightful!

Aleksis Raza | London, England | 12/04/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's no mystery that Mozart was more or less singularly responsible for inventing the genre of the piano concerto as we know it today (all credit be due to JC Bach, however, from whom Mozart took great inspiration). Personally, I feel it is in his Piano concertos that Mozart sounds like Mozart! Those colorful melodies of the first movements of No 25 & No 20; the adagio of No 23. I'm so glad that such music exists - for without it the world of music would be incomplete.Out of the 27 piano concertos that Mozart wrote, this recording has 25 (notably missing are Nos 7 and 10 which were written for two soloists). But my god, Barenboim will blow you away with the ones that are there! This set is an amalgamation of recordings he did of the concertos for EMI between 1964 and 1988 - and you can listen how his style has matured during that period. But I can certainly assume that Barenboim takes great pleasure in playing Mozart because that is precisely what these recordings transpire. Notably, I have not heard a finer recoding of No 25 (which happens to be my personal favorite) nor have I heard the adagio of No 23 sound as natural as it does here. The only downfall of this set is the fact that the packaging could have been slightly better: the 10 CDs are in 10 hard paper wallets, enclosed in a cardboard box. It wounds me to take them in and out as they rub against the paper.Overall I recommend that if you are a dedicated classical CD collecter: this is the box set you should have sitting next to your Glenn Gould Sony Classical Edition of JS Bach's piano works."