Customer Reviews

Mozart: Piano Concertos 17 & 20

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I can see why some people won't like this, but after all Mozart did compose "Don Giovanni," and a pianist needs to approach K.466 with the opera in mind.
Even so, I've never much liked the concerto, but Anderszewski plays it with a grandeur, urgency, and lyricism that, for me anyway, transform the piece. I'd like to think that this is how Liszt would have played it, on a day when he resisted every temptation to tinker with the details.

"The hell with good taste: For all of us tired of pianists of such objectivity and refinement -- the Murray Perahias and Andras Schiffs --that you doubt there is a human being involved in the performance, we seem to be entering a new age of piano playing: Along with Leif Ove Andsness and Mikhail Pletnev, Piotr Anderszewski gives us piano playing with real personality. This is his second Mozard disc and his D-minor concerto is full-blooded and large-boned. Mozart had something to say, and Anderszewski says it: flat out, full speed, all stops open. Reminds one of the days of Serkin, Kempff or Tureck. Only some weak string playing in the G-major concerto keeps this from the highest recommendation." Richard Nilsen

Piotr Anderszewski is a rare enough talent that everything he records is worth listening to. for some reason the other reviewers are all over the map about what they hear. What I hear, in the first place, is the biggest and most heroic of the concertos, the D minor, being miniaturized, a strange move on the pianist's part. For decades, when other concertos were reputed, quite wrongly, to be dainty, K. 466 was admired because it prefigured Beethoven and because its dramatic thrust paired it with Don Giovanni. Anderszewski rises to some grandeur in passing moments of the first movement, but his overall conception is refined and at times cautious, quite a contrast with his earlier, daring recording of the C minor concerto K. 491.

I do't know what brought about this change of heart. In other respects he knows what he's doing; the conducting form the keyboard is accomplished -- but a previous reviewer may be right to suggest that too much attention had to be paid to this role, because the pianist for once seems to lack conviction until he reaches the big Cadenza. It is played with wonderful inventiveness, originality, and personality. The slow movement displays lovely touch, and Anderszewski finds just the right pace, but once again he seems to underplay. This feels more like somebody reflecting on Mozart than fully engaging him. the finale is straightforward and impressive. Both orchestra and recorded sound are exemplary.

We jump back a year, from 1785 to 1784 -- the annus mirabilis so far as Mozart's piano concertos go -- and immediately the sun comes out in the G major concerto K. 453. Anderszewski is all smiles, and every phrase is elegance itself. I wish a little more blood ran in his veins and a little less Champagne, however. There is simply not enough force, and he could have discovered more inflection. In the end, your love for this CD will depend on whether you consider Mozart a more robust composer than this. I do, and as much as I admire Anderszewski, I hear the old, discredited dainty style trying to make a reappearance.

After listening several times to Anderszewski's interpretations of Mozart's two piano concertos on this album this much is clear to me: his technique is impeccable, his command of music clear and firm both as a soloist and as an orchestra conductor. Nothing is coincidental here, unintentional or missed.

One may disagree with Anderszewski's interpretation of Mozart but who knows for sure how Mozart himself wanted his compositions to be played? Anderszewski's playing seems to go way beyond the established "conventional wisdom" of Mozart's sound: clean, harmonious and polite. His playing is more than that, is also lively, energetic and youthful. And I like it.

I read Anderszewski refuses to make studio recordings. All recordings are 'on-stage', live. Undoubtedly well rehearsed, nevertheless, it seems quite an achievement to play so clean and so clear with no errors that I could detect in a single take.

Very highly, enthusiastically recommended.

Anderszewski first Mozart piano concerto CD was highly enjoyable. Although slightly contrived -a trademark of his-, his intelligent playing offered a new insight into these works. Even if one may disagree with his musical choices, Anderszewski has this ability to be interesting and worth listening to.

This time, I cannot subscribe to the concert of praise this recording is garnering: the recording itself is over present -very reverberent hall- and the orchestra cannot seem to offer any pianissimo, ever. Thus as a listener, you never feel anyone is breathing and only when the music stops, the silence is finally from Mozart...

The usual voice that makes Anderszewski so interesting is diluted: the piano is rarely sparkling and the pianist is too busy with conducting in order to say anything with his own playing. What a contrast with his first Mozart CD.

Usually a thinking musician, this time I have felt no emotions from him in this recording, hence quite a disappointing 2 stars.
Perhaps if it were more about Mozart than about him?