Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466

“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” International Record Review, 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.” Sunday Times, 16th December 2012

“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.” Gramophone Magazine, 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.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 ****

“These early recordings suggest a tendency to exaggeration: their dynamic spectrum is too wide and they lack naturalness. But they are exciting.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2012 ***

“A scrupulous labour of love, using a fortepiano as close as humanly possible to Mozart's.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2012 ***

“Nobody really plays Mozart like this today. Recorded in the 1950s, the Concertos are full-toned and dramatic; K415 emerges larger and more serious than usual.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2012 ***

“Katchen's Mozart is a joy, in which the musical dialogue, whether within the solo part or when it is pitted against the orchestra, provides a constant effervescent narrative.” Gramophone Magazine

“The recording is clear; the orchestral playing adept” Gramophone Magazine (Concertos)

“[Uchida is] subtle and highly polished, never drawing attention to her virtuosity and erring on the side of understatement....Despite the profound intimacy with which she imbues both concertos, there is passion too when required...I cannot recall hearing these works performed with this degree of intimacy and subtlety.” International Record Review, March 2011

“Nothing could be more tenderly touching than No 27’s slow movement...the Cleveland Orchestra (directed from the keyboard) brood and explode on cue.” The Times, 12th February 2011 ***

“Decades after she first recorded these concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra, Uchida is recording them again, this time with the Cleveland Orchestra. All the things that made the first recording treasurable are there: the pearly, immaculate tone, the needlepoint precision, the graceful phrasing. The orchestra, too, is on terrific form.” The Telegraph, 11th February 2011 ****

“where others opt for Beethovenian struggle [in K466], she conveys, to a degree unmatched in my experience, a sense of sorrow, an almost harrowing sadness, underlining the tragedy of the work without vitiating its drama. This she does with a probing subtlety that defies concise description and sets this interpretation apart from any other known to me.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2011 *****

“[Uchida is] capable of eliciting a kaleidoscope of moods and orchestral colours...[her] poignant and beautifully expressive performance is beautifully balanced by the orchestra's illuminating accompaniment...Wonderfully fluent and effortlessly brilliant from orchestra and soloist.” Classic FM Magazine, April 2011 *****

“Lyrical, lively, texturally translucent and rhythmically buoyant, Kissin here [in k595] conveys that elusive universality that makes Mozart unique in history.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2010 ***/*

“[Kissin] keeps the ensemble tight and tidy...there are some wonderful moments like the magically handled return to the main subject after the stormy central section of the D minor's Andante, and the finale of K595 takes flight with Kissin producing his most sparkling playing” Gramophone Magazine, September 2010

“This performance of [K595] is hard to fault: there is a fabulous purity of tone, most especially in the slow movement, while the first movement is beautifully pointed from the very start...Kissin continues in a similarly effortless relaxed vein, colouring the sudden modulations in the development without mannerism or affectation.” International Record Review, October 2010

“Evgeny Kissin, in his first recording as both pianist and conductor, gives stylish performances of these two highly contrasting concertos, and has also, seemingly, mastered the far from easy art of directing from the keyboard.The interplay between the soloist and the Kremerata Baltica...is finely managed” Sunday Times, 22nd August 2010 ****

“[Kissin] reminds us that Mozart can withstand bold, meaty playing, with tempi slower, textures heavier and climaxes more expansive than most pianists now dare...these accounts, with passionate support from the Kremerata Baltica, remind you of a performance tradition that has all but disappeared.” The Observer, 1st August 2010

“...the more muscular and stormy Mozart’s music, the more Kissin’s engagement rises. Tension crackles. Phrasing becomes taut...Yet his restraint in itself is no drawback. Both concertos are notably pensive, at times agitated: Kissin simply makes the shadows linger longer.” The Times, 30th July 2010 ***