Customer Reviews

Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 10, 19 & 20, K. 365,459,466

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

 

 

This disc is most important in the Mozart catalog, despite the dismissive comments from some poorly-informed listeners here. In an age where genteel Mozart dominates, these bold, masculine recordings are a new way of looking at old relics, and quite frankly probably closer to the way Wolfie intended. Over the centuries Mozart has become the man-child in most interpretors' hands (see the chapter "The Myth of the Eternal Child" in Solomon's biography, _Mozart, A Life_) and this recording makes one finally able to imagine the Mozart who had stubble, who was a man and not a boy. The comment that Argerich can scarcely be expected to negotiate this music after her bold "recent" Rachmaninoff 3rd recording should just be ignored: the Rach 3 disc is not recent but from 1983, and she no longer plays the Rach in her repertoire, and it was clearly far from her mind when she made these recordings. (Her style in the two discs bear no more than a superficial relation.) But she does attack all music with force and conviction, and is not for the faint-hearted. She challenges conventions...I thought this is what artists (like Mozart himself) were supposed to do.

When one listens to Argerich, one must expect the extraordinary. Not for her is the run of the mill performance which conventional wisdom associates with the "correct" style. She is here to offer gems of ideas of how a composer's work can be intepreted. Her rendition of the D minor Concerto is classic Argerich. Her tone colour (eg.with brlliant use of the una corda), "fantasique" use of rubato and how she makes the music soar make one realise how exciting Mozart music can be. I would rank her D minor rendition with Clara Haskil's (listen to how she ends her cadenza in the 1st movt; the almost unbearable tension and well-gradated crescendo; ditto for Haskil). Different in their own ways, but similar in how they each imprint their individualism in the work. My only problem was with the 1st movt of the F maj. The approach is affected, and I cannot quite understand some of the things she does (eg. tempo rubato at some points) which seem to be idiosyncracies. Her approach seems to be too robust for something so dainty. I would go for Alicia De Larocha's 1st movt for her transparency and simplicity. But Argerich's 2nd movt and 3rd are classic, esp her statement of the 1st subject of the 3rd movt after the first "small" cadenza: the deliberateness in which she reiterates the theme after that, seems almost as if she has not got over her musing in the cadenza. Strongly recommended for students and music lover who want something that goes beyond the jaded renditions of Mozart, and of course for Argerich fans, which I count myself as one.

This CD is a triumph of ebullience over finesse. I don't need to echo the general impression that Argerich offers very bold, forceful Mozart playing. It's one of the peculiarities of her career that she favors big Mozart and small Beethoven. Her old style in the D minor concerto harks back to Serkin and Edwin Fischer, whose generation always took this work to be proto-Beethoven. Since Argerich has never recorded the two mature piano concertos of Beethoven, the Fourth and fifth, this account of the D minor is her most heroic playing in that style, compared to which her Beethoven First, Second, and Third are relatively classical. Even Serkin is more classically circumspect, and as other reviewers assert, Argerich's contemporaries who specialize in Mozart (Perahia, Uchida) are far more delicate and small-scale, taking their cue from restrained models like Haskil and Gieseking.

The Padua and Veneto orchestra, which can also be heard in Beethoven under Peter Maag, are a somewhat rough but jolly bunch, and their vigor suits Argerich's approach perfectly, although they aren't equal partners. As much as Rabinovitch charges ahead and pumps up the sonority, the pianist remains in total command -- to an astonishing degree, in fact. At every turn she contradicts the accepted way we hear Mozart today, and yet her authority sweeps everything before it. She towers like Horowitz but without his arbitrary, grandstanding self-regard. In both K. 459, where Rabinovitch is both soloist and conductor, and K. 466 tempos are fast and the atmosphere bracing. Teldec's recorded sound is excellent; it balances wind soloists an the piano quite well, bringing out their colorful interplay. For some reason I assumed that these wrre early recordings, but the two-piano concerto dates from 1995, the two solo works from 1998.

I wonder why the Amazon critic makes such silly statements? He informs us that the three concertos are very different, but then he characterizes both K. 459 and K. 466 as dramatic (which they are, doubly so in Argerich's hands), and cops out on K. 365 by inanely describing it as "simply lovely." This is musical analysis?

Argerich offers a refreshing take on Mozart's D Minor Concerto, one of the composer's most famous among his 27 in this genre. Her articulation is incisive, and the unfolding of the drama free of sentimentality. For those who cannot associate Argerich with Mozart, I would just say that you owe it to yourself to give this CD a try. Some "canon" interpreters can go to the extreme in sculpting the beauty of Mozart so pure and ethereal as to rob away the wider range of emotions embodied in his music; this D Minor Concerto is a good example.

Robinovitch's F Major No. 19 pales in comparison. The first of the two cadenzas in the last movement is truly strange--very uncharacteristic of Mozart--not sure if it was composed by Robinovitch himself. The CD redeems itself with a fine performance of the Concerto for Two Pianos.

With a market already overladen with Mozart Piano Concerti, any new arrival had best offer something extraordinarily novel. After her fairly recent smash-bang performance of Rachmaninoff's Third, Martha Argerich would hardly be expected to negotiate the delicate balances demanded by Mozart. Her latest Teldec offering of Mozart's <Piano Concertos Nos. 10, 19 & 20> (4509 98407-2) with co-pianist Alexandre Rabinovich and the Wurtembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn under Jorg Faerber gives us some splendid playing here, some interesting sounds there, but I cannot see this replacing some of the older recordings of these same pieces. On the other hand, if one does not already have these pieces in the collection, then by all means give this one a chance. I think you will especially like the No. 10 in E flat for two pianos and orchestra.

"25 used and new from $3.00" -- I think I understand why. First, it is all rushed, especially the 466 and 459. Second, there's something to be said for a "standalone" conductor. Some people can conduct from the keybord, some can't; what we have here is no good (indeed the 365, the last concerto on this record, is almost OK and it's the only one where there's apparently a "full-time" conductor). But there's more to hate here: the orchestra is often out of balance, sometimes they come apart; Argerich sometimes treats you to a heavy, Beethovenian bang-and-crash left hand; there are muddled moments (though, to be fair, rarely -- mostly it's very clear); fitful ritardandos and rubatos make you feel like you missed a step and are going to fall. That's just a small sampling... I may come back and add more specifics (though maybe not: I'm not really motivated to waste time on this failure of a record even further).

Finally, suggested alternatives: for K.459 go with Pollini/Boehm/Vienna Philharmonic (a fairly recent Deutsche Grammophon DVD -- though the recording took place in 1970s, I think). For K.466 and K.365 get Solti, Barenboim, and Schiff with the English Chamber Orchestra (a Polygram CD from 1980s; amazingly, Solti also conducts from the keyboard, but he apparently knows how to do that).

Goh Aik Guan's review of this CD is unfortunate as the F major concerto is not played by Argerich - it's Rabinovitch who plays this one, and it's not to my taste either.

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