Customer Reviews

Mozart - Piano Concertos No. 5, 14, 16 / R. Levin, AAM, Hogwood

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

 

 

A "period" performance like no other, it features Levin improvising the free cadenza sections of each piece, just as Mozart or Beethoven would have if they were still playing. Rather than some "frozen" rendition by a modern technician, Levin has absorbed Mozart's music through practice and study to spontaneously improvise in Mozart's idiom. He masterfully plays Mozart's notes, but extemporizes in the obligatory bits Mozart deliberately left out (cadenzas, not mere ornamentation). Improvisation is a lost art in the Classical Music world today but was the skill that brought fame to Bach and Mozart (remember those concert scenes in "Amadeus"?). Its omission is perhaps one of the reasons if you've heard one boringly perfect recent performance you've pretty well heard them all. Levin makes heady, risky music again. The only drawback is that here we hear only one improvisatory cadenza per movement, rather than the more realistic many alternatives that CD track programming could have supplied. Levin is an enthusiastic Freiburg/Harvard pianist who has "completed" many Mozart score fragments, and is currently teaching a Harvard course on The Swing Era in jazz. How appropriate.

As usual with Levin/Hogwood Mozart recordings, this one is definitely a keeper. The concerto No. 5 gets off to a thrilling start, and this cd never really lets down after that. Perhaps the best track on the entire disc is the opening movement of No. 16, but there is something to please every Mozart buff here. The liner notes are also very well done, including the explanation offered by Robert Levin of why (and how) he improvises his cadenzas, and for you critics out there, he blatantly states that what he plays can never even approach what Mozart did. Still, Levin comes closer to achieving what these magnificent concertos sounded like more than two centuries ago than probably any other living performer today.

Excellent playing. These are beautiful concertos and as good as Mozart's later pieces for pure listening pleasure. Don't worry about the fortepiano - Levin makes up for the somewhat lighter sound. Great cadenzas.