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The sublime results were worth the wait: after forty years of collaboration, Maria João Pires and Maestro Claudio Abbado record two of Mozart’s most beloved piano concertos for the very first time.
Maria João Pires weaves dark, dramatic strains into the miraculous luminosity of the D minor Concerto No.20, K.466 with a simplicity that makes her Mozart supreme. She then bestows a glowing majesty upon Mozart’s last piano concerto, the serene Concerto No.27 K. 595 in B flat major, as only an artist of her gifts and profound experience can.
Orchestra Mozart and Maestro Abbado support Pires with translucent sound and immaculate style: an exceptional encounter between two musical giants of our time.
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27 In B Flat, K.595
1. Allegro
2. Larghetto
3. Allegro
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 In D Minor, K.466
1. Allegro
2. Romance
3. Rondo (Allegro Assai)
December 2012
“From the first moment, the performance has a quality that characterizes the entire recording: a perfect balance between musical, textural and rhythmic precision and all of the mood and atmosphere that the music requires”
16th December 2012
“[K595] has a strange, veiled, ethereal quality, an air of difference from the others, well brought out by Pires, with Abbado and his fine players. By contrast, the opening of the D minor sounds rather tame...The other two movements are much more convincing.”
January 2013
“The conducting is intelligently alive, in quality reminiscent of Benjamin Britten...Pires enters into the prevailing mood, her artistry as thougthful as yore...Pires shows that expressive sensitivity isn't confined to a slow tempo...Reduced forces might have enhanced the concerto's intimate character. It's a small point. These absorbing, penetrating performances deserve the widest currency.”
January 2013
****
“it is the autumnal Concerto No. 27...that is perhaps better suited to the understated poetic eloquence of Maria Joao Pires's playing than the more overtly dramatic Concerto No. 20...Abbado and his Orchestra Mozart offer fine support in both Concertos, and the performances as a whole have an elegance that cannot fail to give pleasure.”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
1. Allegro
