4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Superb playing of little-known works, April 10, 2009
This review is from: Salieri: Concertos for Fortepiano (Audio CD)
Andreas Staier and Concerto Köln is on superb form here, as ever. This is a brilliant recording of Mozart's friend/nemesis court composer Antonio Salieri. A comparison between these two concertos and Mozart's concertos will favour Mozart's depth of feeling and his virtousity. These concertos of Salieri are more a back-drop to our understanding of the state-of-art of keyboard concertos at Mozart's time, though they might even have something to say on theire own too. In the able hands of Staier one can delve beneath the surface (which is arguably not deep...) and linger on theire buty of expresion and wit.
Anton Steffani's concerto is more a kind of ultra-late high baroque which can be seen as a response to Wagenseil's modish galante style. Steffani is impressive in his breadth of form (1st movm.) and dramatic flair, and he must be counted among the best "pre-Haydn composers" of Vienna to have written keyboard concertos. This blind composer was popular at Maria Theresia's time but, even though one can percieve that he aspired to a great depth of feeling he fell perhaps a litle short of his goals. This reissue from Teldec's Das alte Werk is highly recomended both for rare repetoire and outstanding playing form both orchestra and soloist.
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