Search - Johannes Brahms, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Christian Bach :: Mozart: Piano Concertos (Box Set)

Not Much Kocsis

John Atherton | CINCINNATI, OHIO United States | 11/12/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Although the Amazon listing would have you believe that Zoltan Kocsis is the pianist here, he actually plays only in the recordings of the two-and three-piano concertos -- and those are the weakest performances in the set.

No, the pianist in all 27 of the solo concertos (including the four early transcriptions)is the far less highly regarded Derek Han. The good news is that he's quite good -- musicianly, well sprung and masculine, rather in the German tradition of Backhaus, Erdmann and Elly Ney. Note however that this is less nuanced playing than most people seem to prefer these days.

The even better news is that the conductor, Paul Freeman, is brilliant. This is no small thing. As well as Andras Schiff plays, Vegh is also the hero of that set; Serkin performed much better with Schneider than he did with Szell; and Britten is at least the equal of both Curzon and Richter in their recordings. Concertos are about interplay, and there's no substitute for a strong conductor, pace Perahia, Ashkenazy and the Orpheus group. Having said all that, the most distinguished recordings in the set are the Rondos played by Annerose Schmidt and conducted by Kurt Masur. If you can find their complete concerto set (it's available through some British and German outlets) grab it! This is Mozart performance on the highest level."