Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K414

This release completes Christian Zacharias’ prizewinning complete recording of Mozart’s piano concertos. The Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and Zacharias have generated enchanting perfomances through their intimate dialogue.

A fixture on the music scene for more than six decades, pianist Leon Fleisher releases his first two-hand concerto recording in 40 years.

The new recording is comprised of a trio of Mozart concertos recorded with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra: no. 23 in A Major, K. 488; no. 12 in A Major, K. 414; and no. 7 in F Major for two pianos, K. 242, for which he is joined by his wife Katherine Jacobson-Fleisher. Founded in 1945, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra has held a top position in the international orchestral world for more than 60 years. Under founder and director Karl Mnchinger, the ensemble had developed and cultivated the repertoire of the Viennese Classicists.

Winners of the St. Martins in the Fields Chamber Music Competition and two Hattori Foundation Awards, the Piatti Quartet is fast emerging as one of the UK’s leading young string quartets.

The Quartet’s debut recording features master Mozartian Gottlieb Wallisch in a stunning performance of his fellow Austrian’s own rarely-heard chamber orchestrations in ‘Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 12, 13 & 14’.

In contrast to the orchestral version the ensemble strikingly enhances the intricacies of the string writing and encourages immediate interaction among the five musicians.

Wallisch and the Piatti Quartet performed this repertoire to packed audiences at various venues and festivals across the UK in the summer and autumn of 2011.

In 2012 the Piatti Quartet (Charlotte Scott 1st violin, Michael Trainor 2nd violin, David Wigram viola, Jessie Ann Richardson cello) were chosen for the UK-wide ‘Future Classics Classical Tour’ designed to promote the ‘stars of tomorrow’.

The Quartet has performed at both the Newbury Spring Festival and the Bath International Festivals plus major UK venues UK including the Purcell room, Conway Hall, St Georges (Bristol), The Queens Hall (Edinburgh) and has made numerous appearances live on BBC Radio 3.

Named a Steinway Artist in 2012, Gottlieb Wallisch is a competition prize-winner and a respected artist in the Viennese piano tradition.

Wallisch has performed with many leading orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales and has appeared at leading festivals and in major concert halls including the Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Tonhalle Zurich, Musikhalle Hamburg and Singapore Arts Festival amongst others.

Thus did BBC Music Magazine praise Dedicated to Victims of War and Terror (DE3259), one of two previous Delos albums in which Maestro Constantine Orbelian – longtime Director of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra (MCO) – appears as the featured pianist. The other is Shostakovich – Schnittke: Piano Quintets (DE 1038). The present release, offering engaging concerto performances, is now Orbelian’s third recording for Delos as a pianist. Some fans of Orbelian’s work as conductor may still not be aware of his brilliant career as a concert pianist before he assumed the MCO’s directorship in 1991. Since then – despite his intermittent appearances as a pianist – his immense success as a conductor has overshadowed his reputation as a distinguished keyboard artist. With this sterling reissue, a new generation of listeners should come to appreciate his rare piano mastery. While all of these winning performances are with the MCO, they were recorded in the years just before Orbelian took over the orchestra. The three concertos with single piano were performed under the deft baton of previous MCO director Andrei Korsakov, whose untimely death in 1991 left the vacancy that Orbelian filled. Korean Maestro Nanse Gum expertly conducted the Mozart “Double” Concerto No. 10, also featuring noted American pianist Jonathan Shames. Orbelian’s trumpet partner in the Shostakovich is the Russian superstar Sergei Nakariakov, then only about 12 years old!

This album is more than remarkable: Following a series of award winning recordings Austrian pianist Markus Schirmer presents his first recording as a soloist with orchestra. And what an orchestra it is …

Three Mozart Piano Concertos performed by the acclaimed Italian pianist Andrea Bacchetti. The Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto is currently one of the most renowned chamber orchestras in Italy and Carlo Goldstein is an emerging conductor on the Italian music scene.

Previous Andrea Bacchetti recordings have been met with critical acclaim: “He is a clear and elegant pianist, with crisp, immaculate fingerwork” said International Record Review on CDS659. “Andrea Bacchetti's latest recording…is one of the most wonderful things I have ever heard” said BBC Music Magazine on CDS659.