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Mozart: The Great Piano Concertos, Vol. 2
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List Price:
$17.98
Special Price:
$13.99
Your Savings: $ 3.99 ( 22% )
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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Philips
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028944257120
Label: Philips
Manufacturer: Philips
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Philips
Release Date: 1994-10-11
Studio: Philips
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Mozart Rocks!
Comment: This 2 CD set is awesome! Some of the best he did done by some great conductors!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mozart: The Great Piano Concertos, Vol. 2 Alfred Brendel
Comment: Nice interpretation of Mozart's piano concerto.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Marvelous Mozart
Comment: Alfred Brendel's place as an interpreter of the Viennese Classic repertory is by now unassailable, and his recordings of the Mozart Piano Concertos are a prime example of his art. His lean, focused sound can strike a listener as insufficiently sensuous in Romantic repertory, but against the backdrop of an orchestra, it seems a perfect modern equivalent of the eighteenth-century fortepiano, so much so that I don't really miss having an "authentic" instrument. Besides, discarding recordings such as these on the basis of inauthenticity would deny all listeners the chance to experience Brendel's practically infallible sense of style and taste.
Perhaps the real surprise in this collection of five concertos is that Brendel is at his most relaxed and insightful in the E-flat major Concerto, K. 482, which in most critical canons occupies a slightly lower place than the works which come before and after it. Mozart's warm-hearted and colorfully orchestrated (clarinets instead of the usual oboes) piece brings out an equivalent and unexpected playfulness of dynamic and rhythm in the pianist's irresistible reading, with profuse but always appropriate ornamentation in the rondo, and intriguing, stylish original cadenzas for the first and last movements. Incidentally, the same virtues hold for all of Brendel's emendations to Mozart's original notes in these pieces; in this he is decidely superior to Ashkenazy in his Mozart concerto recordings. (The one drawback of this entire set is that the inclusion of five concertos necessitates splitting K. 482 between the first and second CDs.)
It is only by these exalted standards that the performances of K. 271, the dashing "Jeunehomme," pushing the boundaries of standard concerto form with its unexpected piano interjections at the outset, and the Olympian K. 503 come off as slightly stiffer and less attuned to the finest nuance; however, the latter performance was recorded live and astonishes with its digital clarity, the concluding roar of applause being amply justified.
Brendel's collaborators, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields with Neville Marriner, supply exemplary accompaniments, notwithstanding some slight inaccuracies in the live K. 503 and, more surprisingly, K. 595. One hopes these recordings will be available for a long time to come.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Artistic Genius
Comment: Mozart is rightly hailed as a musical genius. Some say he was the best that ever was. I personally prefer Bach and baroque organ fugues but this CD is a good argument for the Mozart partisans.
In the first place, the compositions are excellent. Mozart was a genius and it shows. In the second place, the performances preserved here are exquisite. The recordings are clear and vibrant.
It is a first class album all around.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Almost Perfect
Comment: If you love Mozart you will really enjoy this CD. In my opinion Sir Neville Marriner & the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields performs Mozart better than any other. The only problem I have with this CD is some tracks on the first CD are recorded live. I have never been a big fan of live recordings. An occasional cough is heard on track 4 which makes me cringe. If only they passed out cough drops that evening I would have awarded this CD five stars. Otherwise the music is simply sublime. Robitussin anyone?
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