Customer Reviews

Mozart: Piano Concertos No 19 & 27 / Haskil, Fricsay

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful CD of Mozart's piano music by Clara Haskil, with the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Ferenc Fricsay. Haskil tackles the 19th Concerto, one of Mozart's greatest, with glowing results, and Mozart's final 27th concerto is also captured beautifully, and in particular the mood of the finale. The recordings of the two piano concertos are both in mono, but they sound magnificent. The final piece, Piano Sonata K280, is a stereo recording from 1960, and it was Haskil's final session for DG. (She died six months later as a result of a fall at the Brussels-Midi railway station.) As the editorial review states, Clara Haskil may have been a connoisseur's pianist, but let me tell you, I'm no connoisseur (though I aspire to be) and I love this disc.

Clara Haskil was an extraordinary artist. She represents Mozart spirit per excellence. Her nuance, rapture and absolute domain of the Mozartian language is more than obvious when you listen very carefully every one of her different interpretations. In the case of the Concert No. 19 , a minor Concert in the universe of Mozart's Giants Piano Concertos, she extracts all the possible essence , giving to this Rhapsodic Concert the Operatic character so well accented in the last movement. But realize as she elevates this Andante to unimaginable levels.

Despite the fact she played some Mozart piano Concertos with Markevitch, she established with Ferenc Fricsay an invisible and evident rapport you miss in Igor.

Honesty, conviction and above all a profound devotion for Mozart is something you can not dissimulate , you have or not , but you never can mask behind the stage.
In the case of this Concert 27, one of my eternal favorites Concerts by its wholeness , so well written, with such expressiveness, warmth and joy of living character is a real tramp for most of the interpreters. Mozart looks beyond its own time and seems to be thinking in another universe, light years ahead your colleagues. The First Movement is real jewel . full of that apparent sweetness surrounded of majesty, serene eloquence and perpetual mystery. The bars fall with the precise intonation, she emphasizes with such dynamism every note , her pianissimos, mezzo fortes and fortes are never out of place. She seemed to know so well the Mozartian spirit as such a few number of pianists in the story. Listen her cadenza played with rapture, delicacy and energy.

When you listen to the Andante you are immediately carried to another level , it looks like exaggerate but try with her. The slender arpeggios and the brightness of her phrasing is simply overwhelming and admirable. Fricsay accompanies her with perfect results. The music breaths with such elegance and conviction without later effects. She drowns in these waters with that accuracy certainness, and purity that it results for you almost impossible not feeling it. When she makes the repeats of the first motive , she makes a slender rubato employing the pedal with velvet tenderness.

Finally in the Third movement , Fricsay, Haskill and the whole orchestra display their best gifts. The invisible chemistry between all the members make of this so operatic introduction flows with discrete steps. They keep the austere atmosphere from the first bars, maintaining a slow tempo that progressively grows in intensity, never forced and the grace and humor never shades the hidden Ace of despair behind the apparent and radiant spirit of the principal theme announced by the piano. In the second theme the anguish empowers of the piano, the dialogue with the Orchestra keeps going and the piano gives the answer and the orchestra accompanies to this conclusion in which the short cadenza appears resuming both themes. Haskill attacks the melody and revitalizes the joyful motive with minor intensity than before, and the surprise appears when the piano and the Orchestra join again making an Imperial Farewell.

The Sonata is magnificent played with that touch of class slenderness The adagio is simply outstanding. Her fingers create and recreate at the same time she plays. That is the real difference between Haskil and the rest of the interpreters.

This a legendary and supreme recording that it's almost an imperative for you to have it.

This is an absolutely delightful recording, one that a listener wouldn't hesitate to take it with him or her to a desert-island. Clara Haskil, one of the handful of truly great artists of the 20th century, captures the spirit of the composer as no one else does. Moreover, in Fricsay, she finds a perfectly sympathetic partner completely in one with her in reaching to the heart of the music. More sublime music making than this is really difficult to imagine. Buy this disc and you will have a life-long companion that warms the heart and soothes the soul.

Haskil is the perfect Mozart musical imagination with fresh approach and extraordinary touch. Fricsay takes tempi as it should be: breathing with music. His approach of taking slower tempi which are rare to hear these days are done with impulse , dynamic and consequently: life. The 19th concerto in the recording is superb and certainly the words: transcendence, creation or re-creation could apply. Both two interprets are using different colorations to underline cumulating musical points with deep understanding and in perfect "natural" harmony of inspiration. At the same time their deep thinking in their interpretation does not interfere with the flow of the notes but only enriched them. The aesthetic choice and the responses between the piano and the orchestra are certainly one of most convincing dialogue in Mozart oeuvre interpretation. Each musician breaths with music and are inspired by each note and by each other like in a conversation but without imposing an absolute. The meeting of these two actors create the best context to serve music with lyrical and emotional climate but without being sentimental. It is a rare moment when everything is artistically so just that between the composer, the orchestra and the pianist they form ONE.
Haskil is astonishingly modern in her approach creating to the listener an aim of rarely surpassed musical clarity and inspiration.

This is a CD that finds its way into the my player in the depths of despair. In the darkest of hours, coldest of winters, it illuminates the room and warms the soul. I find it exceedingly hard to add anymore to the previous reviewers' words except the above.
Never have I encountered a more perfectly made recording.

The famous performances here hardly need another review. Clara Haskil had a superb feel and conception for Mozart, and her recordings of the concertos are for me unsurpassed. Of special note here is no. 19, which may not be one of the best known, but in her hands, it should be. Her combination of subtle lyricism and unforced rhythmic energy bring it to life. The CD transfer, alas, is a muddled disaster (at least with respect to the concertos -- the sonata fares better), and Ms. Haskil's beautiful tone, so clear on the original LP, is lost. Fortunately, the eight or so other Haskil CDs I have are much better in this regard, and these particular recordings have been issued elsewhere. If I find a better version, I'll submit another review.