Mozart: Rondo for Piano & Orchestra in A major, K386

"Early on in the planning of these sessions, we decided that the microphone placement would be very different from traditional set-ups. After much experimentation, we opted for a layout very much like theatre in the round, with the keyboard in the very centre, winds in a line facing the solo instrument, and the strings as a sort of envelope all around and behind the piano. Crucially, it brings the winds – such operatic characters in Mozart’s Viennese concertos – very much to the fore of the sonic picture; it also encourages a much more natural and vivid interplay between the piano and the wind band. It has meant that the kind of keyboard-dominated sound one sometimes encounters, has been replaced by what E. T. A. Hoffmann described as a symphony with piano obbligato – the piano, playing both solo and continuo, darts in and out of the lush orchestral texture; at times, incredibly prominent, at other moments, purely accompanimental. Mozart’s sensational gifts as an improviser are well known by now, and indeed there are frequent places in the piano part where embellishment is an obligatory element of the stylistic grammar. Our feeling was that this spirit of spontaneity should extend to the orchestra as well. One will notice that the solo wind instruments depart from the text on numerous occasions; these ornaments were partly pre-planned, partly refined and revised by the wonderful wind principals of the FBO. After all, Mozart was writing for some of the most gifted and wellrespected wind soloists of the time, and although it is hard to prove, I find it difficult to imagine that he would have frowned on his collaborators’ natural tendency to introduce subtle embellishments." Kristian Bezuidenhout

Kristian Bezuidenhout's next release on harmonia mundi USA will be Volume 4 of his solo Mozart project which has received unanimously good, sometimes great, reviews, including IRR Outstanding, Gramophone Recommends, CD Review Disc of the Week and a BBC Music Magazine Choice.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is considered one of the greatest composers of all time. In his relatively short life he contributed to every style of composition, and is as well known for his instrumental music as for his sacred works and operas. Credited with the invention of the piano concerto, his distinctive style and developments in orchestration brought new sophistication to the music of the Classical period. During the 1770s Mozart was an employee of the Archbishop Hieronymous Colloredo in Salzburg, and it is from this period that the Concerto for 3 Pianos and Orchestra in F K242 dates. The work was written with the Archbishop’s nieces in mind, although it was later revised for Mozart and his sister to play, and its cheeky interplay between the soloists and various passages of fast finger work are typical of Mozart’s style. The Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra K365 that follows contains a plethora of ideas that the composer weaves into a whole; the ensuing Rondo for Piano and Orchestra in D K382, meanwhile, was hugely popular among the Viennese audience at the time of its composition, and has remained so today – thanks to its imaginative scoring and memorable melodies. Last, not by no means least, the Rondo for Piano and Orchestra in A: thought to have been the original finale to the Piano Concerto in A, this work was not published in Mozart’s lifetime. Gradually pieced together from manuscript sold on by his wife after his death, it was finally issued in 1963. The disc features four outstanding pianists: Hungarian pianist and conductor Zoltán Kocsis, fellow countryman Dezsö Ranki, British‐Hungarian András Schiff and Germanborn Annerose Schmidt. They are joined by the Hungarian State Orchestra (conducted by János Ferencsik) and the Dresdner Philharmonie (conducted by Kurt Masur).

The present disc is the first in a projected series of Mozart’s piano concertos, for which Brautigam returns to the fortepiano – a copy of an 1802 instrument by Walther & Sohn – and is joined by the experienced period band Die Kölner Akademie conducted by Michael Willens. The programme includes one of Mozart’s first early master-pieces, the ‘Jenamy’ Concerto (previously known as ‘Jeunehomme’) composed in 1777 before he had moved from Salzburg to Vienna. This is followed by Piano Concerto No.12 in A major, K 414, one of the first Vienna concertos, and a Rondo for piano and orchestra from the same period. Ronald Brautigam’s ongoing series of Beethoven’s music for piano solo has been met with great acclaim, but his earlier traversal of Mozart’s sonatas and variation were equally well-received, as witness the following quote from a review in Gramophone upon the release of it as a boxed set: ‘Brautigam's imaginative interpretations capture Mozart's many moods, from the galant style of the six earliest sonatas to the aching drama of the A minor (K310).’

To a unique degree, Ronald Brautigam has managed to combine highly successful careers as a performer on both the fortepiano and the modern piano. With close to fifty released CDs on BIS, his discography testifies to this, including complete cycles on fortepiano of the solo piano music by Mozart and Haydn, but also four recent discs of the complete Beethoven piano concertos played on a modern Steinway.

Here’s something unexpected from APR - a brand new recording of Mozart Concertos with Valerie Tryon and the LSO! To celebrate Valerie’s 75th birthday this year we have recorded her playing concertos by the composer perhaps closest to her heart, and with the LSO accompanying and the highest production values (Andrew Keener, producer & Simon Eadon, engineer) here is a disc, more than any other, which shows what a hidden treasure we have in the pianism of this neglected artist. As an added bonus for pianophiles, Valerie has given us the premiere recording of Leopold Godowsky’s cadenza to the C minor concerto. Inauthentic - without a doubt! But fascinating none the less, and those of a timid disposition can replace this with the safer Hummel cadenza which is added to the CD as an appendix. Finally, to complete this well filled disc we have the charming Rondo K386, a work which was long played wthout Mozart’s original ending which was thought lost, these missing pages recently came to light and we have recorded the most up-to-date version of this work, published in 2007.

Recorded in 2008, respected pianist Derek Han provides a programme of rarer Mozart piano works