Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 13 in C major, K415

Recently awarded Canada’s prestigious Governor General’s Performing Arts Award 2012 for Lifetime Achievement in Classical Music, pianist Janina Fialkowska presents her second Mozart CD on ATMA with two rarely heard Mozart concertos.

Based in Ottawa, The Chamber Players of Canada is a group made up of some of the best musicians from across Canada.

Julius Katchen recorded two Mozart piano concertos with Peter Maag and they both appear on this CD, together with the Six German Dances, KV 509 – ‘a magnificent example of the power of a genuinely charismatic conductor’ as Tully Potter notes in his liner notes. Katchen first entered Decca’s London studios in 1947 and was still heavily involved in a major Brahms project when he died of cancer in Paris, the city that had long been his home. He made his debut at the age of ten, playing the Mozart D minor concerto. Like Peter Maag, he was a philosopher, having completed a four-year course at Haverford College in three years. A musician of immense warmth – as witnessed in these Mozart readings – his colossal technique was always understated.

Unfairly neglected, Mozart’s C major Concerto, KV 415 is a gem. At the time of this recording (1955), it was only the third to appear. Cor de Groot’s performance had the honour of being the first LP version and this was preceded by Artur Balsam’s 78rpm recording. It was to be another five years before the concerto was to be recorded again – in 1960 by Clara Haskil. The D minor Concerto is Mozart’s most Beethovenian, and indeed it is Beethoven’s cadenzas that Katchen uses for his recording. (For the C major concerto, even though Mozart’s cadenzas survive, Katchen does not play them, using one of his own in the opening movement.) Word has it that Mozart wrote his delightful set of six German Dances, KV 509 in one hour during an enjoyable trip to Prague in 1787. Unfathomably neglected, they were taped for this recording in Kingsway Hall in January 1959 and make their first appearance here since their initial release on a ten-inch LP.

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.

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 …

Established in 2006, the instrumental ensemble La Petite Symphonie reclaims the directory of the 18th century. Daniel Isoir directs his period instrument ensemble from the keyboard: a copy of a fortepiano by Johann Andreas Stein, as preferred by Mozart.

This is the debut recording of La Petite Symphonie for the label Agogigue, dedicated to three great piano concertos of Mozart.

Coming from the family of organists, Isoir studied with such great masters as Marek Jablonski, Claude Frank, Paul Badura-Skoda on piano, Paul Tortelier and Yevgeny Korolyov. As well as his Petite Symphonie he also works regularly on projects with the Royaumont Foundation or the Bach Academy, including operas by Gretry directed by Jean-François Novelli.

The musicians of La Petite Symphonie share a passion for classical music and playing on period instruments. They participate regularly with the 'big' bands playing on period instruments: Les Arts Florissants, Les Talens Lyriques, The Musicians of the Louvre, Le Concert d'Astree, Chamber Philharmonic, the Orchestre des Champs Elysées, Le Concert des Nations etc..

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.

Christian Zacharias is both soloist and conductor in this successful series. His partnership with MDG has yielded outstanding productions in every respect. He has won two Echo Klassic Prizes and has been selected as Artist of the Year by international music critics. He and his ensemble communicate all the vibrancy of this music.