Mozart: Piano Concertos. Beethoven: Choral Fantasy

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Andor Foldes’s crystalline fingerwork and unaffected playing gets to the heart of the music. Close focus sound, particularly in the earlier recordings. — BBC Music Magazine, March 2019, 4 out of 5 stars

Release Date: 28th Sep 2018
Catalogue No: ELQ4828533
Label: Eloquence
Length: 2 hours 39 minutes

Mozart: Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra No. 10 in E flat, K365

Work length25:00

$3.30

$4.50

Carl Seemann (piano), Andor Foldes (piano)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Fritz Lehmann
Recorded: 1955-04-18
Recording Venue: Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin

1. Allegro

Track length9:55

$1.10

$1.50

2. Andante

Track length7:31

$1.10

$1.50

3. Rondeau (Allegro)

Track length7:34

$1.10

$1.50

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 15 in B flat major, K450

Work length26:43

$3.30

$4.50

Andor Foldes (piano)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Leopold Ludwig
Recorded: 1963-02-06
Recording Venue: Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin

1. Allegro

Track length10:51

$1.10

$1.50

2. (Andante)

Track length7:44

$1.10

$1.50

3. Allegro

Track length8:08

$1.10

$1.50

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K467 'Elvira Madigan'

Work length28:04

$3.30

$4.50

Andor Foldes (piano)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Paul Schmitz
Recorded: 1957-10-11
Recording Venue: Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin

1. Allegro maestoso

Track length13:57

$1.10

$1.50

2. Andante

Track length7:07

$1.10

$1.50

3. Allegro vivace assai

Track length7:00

$1.10

$1.50

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K453

Work length30:16

$3.30

$4.50

Andor Foldes (piano)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Fritz Lehmann
Recorded: 1954-02-12
Recording Venue: Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin

1. Allegro

Track length12:15

$1.10

$1.50

2. Andante

Track length10:06

$1.10

$1.50

3. Allegretto - Finale: Presto

Track length7:55

$1.10

$1.50

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K503

Work length30:11

$3.30

$4.50

Andor Foldes (piano), Andor Foldes (cadenzor)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Leopold Ludwig
Recorded: 1963-02-06
Recording Venue: Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin

1. Allegro maestoso

Track length14:55

$1.10

$1.50

2. Andante

Track length6:46

$1.10

$1.50

3. Allegretto

Track length8:30

$1.10

$1.50

Beethoven: Fantasia for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra in C minor, Op. 80

Work length19:21

$1.10

$1.50

Andor Foldes (piano)
Berliner Philharmoniker, Berliner Motettenchor, RIAS Kammerchor
Fritz Lehmann
Recorded: 1955-04-13
Recording Venue: Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin

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A first CD release on Deutsche Grammophon of four concertos from a master interpreter of Mozart. Describing his experience as a youth in Hungary hearing Bruno Walter play and conduct a Mozart concerto, the Hungarian pianist Andor Foldes stated that all in attendance ‘were happy, so obviously happy, in the service of a higher power - Mozart’s spirit’. His own fidelity to the spirit as well as the letter of music from the Classical era was happily captured on record over the best part of two decades by Deutsche Grammophon.

The pianist’s ‘craftsman-like approach’ to Beethoven was warmly appreciated in Gramophone (March 2018) by Rob Cowan, reviewing two Eloquence albums of sonatas and variations (482 7053, 482 5854), who noted how Foldes seems ‘absolutely at home in the recording studio ... His playing is a pleasure to listen to on its own terms, rather like enjoying the precise workings of a meticulously engineered watch movement.’ These qualities of precision and transparency are, it could be argued, still more germane to the performance of Mozart. The earliest recording presented in this collection is the 1954 account of the G major Concerto KV 453, which reveals to perfection Foldes’s singing sonority and seamless legato; his crystalline trills, fluid arpeggios, and deftly-defined finger-work in the first movement are particularly beguiling. His 1963 reading of the Concerto No. 25 in C major KV 503 features beautifully burnished lines and attentive balance between melodic and harmonic elements, the interplay between orchestra and soloist being remarkably cohesive.

The Concerto KV 467, surely the sunniest and most untroubled of the mature concertos, or so it seems in this 1957 recording. In all the concertos he receives richly textured support from the Berliner Philharmoniker, who are also on hand for the substantial ‘bonus’ of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, making this album an essential complement to the Eloquence reissue of the composer’s First and Fifth Concertos (482 7048).

‘The solo playing, the singing and the orchestral playing are all in the highest degree sensitive, and they are all given every chance by a first-class recording. In particular, the piano comes off well.’ - Gramophone, April 1956 (Beethoven)

‘Among the better recordings of these masterworks ... [Foldes] is favoured with excellent orchestral support and generally first-rate recording.’ - High Fidelity, July 1958 (Concertos K453, K467)

Reviews

March 2019

Andor Foldes’s crystalline fingerwork and unaffected playing gets to the heart of the music. Close focus sound, particularly in the earlier recordings.

Mozart: Piano Concertos. Beethoven: Choral Fantasy

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