Mozart Piano Concertos
Oct 9, 2004 at 2:19 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 85

dshea_32665

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I have been listening to a lot of late romantic music lately and have been wanting to balance this with some Mozart, starting with the Piano Concertos. Any suggestions?

When I was studying, Murray Perahia was the man for Mozart. Are his recordings still the gold standard? or have some others come out which would be comparable.

Thanks,
dshea
 
Oct 9, 2004 at 2:52 PM Post #2 of 85
Quote:

Originally Posted by dshea_32665
When I was studying, Murray Perahia was the man for Mozart. Are his recordings still the gold standard? or have some others come out which would be comparable.

Thanks,
dshea



If you go by the professional critics they will almost all choose Perahia as first choice for Mozart piano concertos............I have many of them but am not as enthralled as most critics. They sound a bit bland overall to me without much contrast or energy, a bit too conservative and polished for me. I just can't picture a virtuoso like Mozart playing these in such a manner.

I am not entirely happy with any of the current sets out there I have heard, although each has different strengths and weakness, I have several Cds each by:
Perahia
Jando
Schiff
Ashkenazy
Kovacevich
Brendel
and a few one offs

Will continue my search for reference Mozart piano concertos. Someone give me guidance.............
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Oct 9, 2004 at 3:11 PM Post #3 of 85
Perahia stands right up there, but, if you can, try to get a hold of the Casadesus/Szell/Cleveland. They are, imo, absolutely superb. Moravec is also very good.
 
Oct 9, 2004 at 5:42 PM Post #4 of 85
I will try and get the Szell recordings. As I have said in the Mahler thread, I am a huge Szell fan for my own professional reasons. The price is right as well and it takes me little prompting to add another Szell recording to my collection.

I have numbers 17, and 24 with Andre Previne and the VPO which I have always really enjoyed. One very rarely hears about Previne as a choice for Mozart, no disrespect to his incredible talents, but I have always loved the phrasing, purity of sound and flow to his performances on this CD. I own a couple of Concerti with Brendel, and they are a bit bland and academic for me.

I am borrowing a CD with Perahia doing nos. 20 and 27. I was expecting magic, but I kind of agree with you Dark Angel. I was a little disappointed. I only gave it a quick listen and will give it another chance before I make up my mind.

dshea
 
Oct 9, 2004 at 8:13 PM Post #6 of 85
Clifford Curzon made some wonderful Mozart concerto recordings for Decca. There's a two disc reissue in the Decca Legends series (96khz transfers). His reading of K. 595 (with Britten conducting) is especially eloquent.
 
Oct 10, 2004 at 6:43 PM Post #7 of 85
Another great way to get quality mozart piano concerto's cheap are the two Phillips Duo releases for Brendel/Marriner with Academy St Martin, 5 concertos in each set. These were recorded in mid 1970's with very good analog sound at the height of Marriner's creative output of Mozart......the sound quality is much better than Periha has on his Sony CDs (then CBS masterworks)

Also the orchestra and piano performances are more energetic with more artistic flair IMO.

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The Shelley/Chandos series has interest for me but full price CDs are too expensive for purchase at this time......may buy one used to see if series should be pursued.

Shelley

BTW, I will also pick up that Casadesus CD with Szell/Sony
 
Oct 11, 2004 at 12:07 PM Post #8 of 85
To help you spend money:

Tower Records has 25% off DG, Decca, Phillips (universal labels) classical Cds entire month of October. Nice feature is free shipping for $20 or more purchase, free shipping gets delivered very fast no need to purchase faster service IMO.

Tower
 
Oct 11, 2004 at 2:08 PM Post #9 of 85
I actually own a CD of two of those Brendel Concerti with Marriner. I haven't listened to them in a long time, so I will give them another listen. My initial impressions may have been based more on the sound that Previne and the VPO were getting. The microphone is a bit further from the piano so everything is smooth and you don't get the slight hammer details. I think this may have confused my perceptions when I heard the Brendel recordings. When I spent more time listening to the Perahia recording this weekend, I got the type of piano sound as the Brendel recordings. I agree with you that the sound of the Perahia recordings is not great. The piano seems to be too dark when contrasting it to the bright orchestra sound. Also, the microphone placements seem funny to me so that that balance between piano and orchestra is a little off.

Speaking of Perahia, I was actually more impressed with his playing than in my initial impression. It is isn't flashy or has that performers flair, but I keep going to back to something my teacher told me when I was studying "Mozart's music is perfect the way it is, it doesn't need you to do anything to it". I think Perahia doesn't do a whole lot to it soloistically, but tries to stay out of the way while producing a sound that is never forced. I kept being drawn to how he uses the natural piano decay to help give the music a lightness and shaping ability in a similar way a non percussive instrument would do. Anyway, I want to try and get that Szell recording and some of the others mentioned.

Thanks for the comments all. Dark Angel, how many recordings do you own? It sounds like you have multiple recordings of EVERYTHING
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Appreciate your insights.

dshea
 
Oct 11, 2004 at 3:22 PM Post #10 of 85
Perihia's concerto set has both analog and early digital recordings since it was recorded over late 1970's and early 1980's.......this doesn't help overall sound quality and the analog performances have the better sound.

I do have pretty extensive classical collection of my favorite composers, including lots of Mozart concertos and symphonies. Including all music styles I have @2,500 CDs.
 
Oct 11, 2004 at 4:49 PM Post #11 of 85
Out of the complete sets that I have (Schiff, Perahia, Ashkenazy, Uchida, Anda, and Bilson), Brendel is my favorite. I really like his approach, firm, upright, strong - somewhat stacatto but with a singing line. This is not "prettified" mozart ala Uchida and Perahia, it is not "weak" sounding like Bilson, and is not "Romanticized" like Ashkenazy and Schiff (and especially Barenboim). Finding strong mozart playing that is not pushed beyond it's classical proportions is difficult, and IMO Brendel gets it just right. His newer recordings with Mackerras are even better with really exceptional recording quality, but they are all full price.
 
Oct 11, 2004 at 8:59 PM Post #12 of 85
for a real bargain try the EMI Seraphim reissue of Concerts 20 to 23 played by Annie Fischer with the Philarmonia (catalog # 5 68529 2). That's Mozart with a woman's touch (sorry couldn't resist
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): sweet, elegant, careful... I am surprised nobody mentioned it already!
Paolo
 
Oct 12, 2004 at 2:32 PM Post #13 of 85
Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyson
Out of the complete sets that I have (Schiff, Perahia, Ashkenazy, Uchida, Anda, and Bilson), Brendel is my favorite. I really like his approach, firm, upright, strong - somewhat stacatto but with a singing line. This is not "prettified" mozart ala Uchida and Perahia, it is not "weak" sounding like Bilson, and is not "Romanticized" like Ashkenazy and Schiff (and especially Barenboim). Finding strong mozart playing that is not pushed beyond it's classical proportions is difficult, and IMO Brendel gets it just right. His newer recordings with Mackerras are even better with really exceptional recording quality, but they are all full price.


Interesting that Tyson would mention Geza Anda......look what will be arriving very soon:

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Got this for 25% off at Tower sale, 8 CD set for $42 so $5 a CD not bad. Recorded in the 1960's famous as first recorded complete set of concertos. From the samples I like his style and sound quality sounds very good, will report more when this arrives.


I do also have the famous rosette Bilson/Archiv CD of 20/21 concertos using forte piano. Even though Mozart used harpsicord and forte piano during his lifetime, his concertos just sound so much better on modern full range piano that I only keep this as a curiosity. Forte piano just sounds compressed and flat tonally like comparing mono recording to modern stereo version, Gardiner's orchestral work however is fantastic.
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Oct 13, 2004 at 10:27 PM Post #14 of 85
Hey Tyson, you are a genious. I just did your Ety foamie mod with my 4S's and wow I can't believe my ears. The bass and mid range sound incredible and that little extra hyper detail is smoother. I feel like I am listening to Etys with a little Sennheiser presentation mixed in.

Sorry to get off topic.

Oh yeah, the Mozart Piano Concertos I own sound so much better
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dshea
 
Oct 14, 2004 at 1:45 AM Post #15 of 85
Quote:

Originally Posted by danaa
Perahia stands right up there, but, if you can, try to get a hold of the Casadesus/Szell/Cleveland. They are, imo, absolutely superb. Moravec is also very good.


Good choices! Moravec is almost always my favorite with anything he does. I have only 23 and 25 by him and they are not easy to find on vinyl.

Casadesus is also fine; and easy and cheap on Sony.

I like Barenboim conducting from the keyboard in #20.
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