Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat major, K271 "Jeunehomme" - download (MP3 & FLAC)

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.

After a praised discography; Ciacconas of JS BACH diapason découverte in 2005, Préludes, Chorals & Fugues de JS BACH diapason d’or in 2009, several records in romantic music; Schumann in 2007, Chopin in 2010, Edna Stern offers her first concerto recording.

She chose early Mozart concertos which played many times in a quintet format and for which she rediscovered this chamber approach with the soloist of the Orchestre d’Auvergne. As Mozart left Salzbourg’s archibishop to become an independant musician, his new concertos are a true change compared to the baroque form of concertos where the soloist was at the center followed by the orchestra. Mozart chose a passionate dialogue betwen the piano and individual members of the orchestra, where the piano express its feeling and the orchestra comments them, the winds play at the first person. “Both the level and the nature of the dialogue in K.271 were without precedent. So was the promotion of the wind section to the front ranks of musical diplomacy.Jeremy Siepmann

'In my view the modern piano, with its immense possibilities, can evoke at the same time or successively a whole host of characters and feelings, as in an opera. But it also retains sufficient distance to be able to express itself metaphorically. These characters seem to speak to us, but not in specific terms. Only the extreme precision of their phrasing makes them real and close to us. It’s all there in the notes, with incredible skill in the detail! And that’s what I love in these concertos: a skill that is so poetic and touching.' Edna Stern