Tuesday, September 11, 2012

My favorite Mozart Piano Concerti

I have listened to KV 503 a lot because it's probably the Mozart piano concerto I love the most.  The recordings by Fleisher, Kovacevich, and Anda are favorites.  I recently added Tryon and Perahia and they don't disappoint.  I think I'll start listening more to the Clifford Curzon recordings I have, especially the two of KV 595.  I was listening to KV 595 in the car (Clara Haskil's DG recording).  The Larghetto is so poignant and this concerto is so distant from the bucolic joy of say, KV 449 which is my favorite middle Mozart concerto (which I came to love from Peter Serkin's RCA recording).  I think you hear a restrained version of this in the Rondo of KV 595 (the only 'sunny' side of Mozart's final piano concerto).  I've always enjoyed KV 491 through Kempff and Annie Fisher's recordings.  The Jeunehomme Concerto, KV 271, is also a favorite because of the depth of emotion that early concerto has.  I especially like Clara Haskil's playing of this concerto.  I also have the distant, happy memory of hearing Maria João Pires playing this concerto with the Toronto Symphony when I was an undergraduate at U of T.  The only other Mozart concerto I've heard live was a 12 year old Kathy Chi playing KV 467 with the Calgary Philharmonic when I was in high school. 'Elvira Madigan' concerto was the first Mozart concerto I ever heard.  Géza Anda's Eurodisc recording of this was in the Time-Life Great Men of Music Mozart box I bought so long ago in high school.  That was my introduction to the glories of Mozart piano concertos!  I think I would have to add KV 482 and KV 488 as favorites too.  Wilhelm Kempff's 1982 recording of KV 482 (made when he was in his late-80s) has never been released on CD.  I am still waiting Deutsche Grammophon!  Wilhelm Kempff plays his own cadenzas for the LP of KV 467 and KV 482 (I have two copies of this DG LP, one never opened).

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