Mozart - Piano Concerto 23 [Uchida/Tate-English Chamber Orchestra]
Another Mozart Piano Concerto, i only know Concertos 20-21 & 24 really well, the 23rd is still a work that needs to become more familiar to me to differentiate itself from the other late Concertos [22 & 25-27].
I seriously wish that Philips would make a boxed set of Uchida's Mozart piano Concertos 20-27, nicely fitted on four discs, instead i've got four separate discs.
Mozart finished this Concerto a week after his 30th birthday, also Mitsuko Uchida has recorded this Concerto again, this time she's the Pianist/Conductor with The Cleveland Orchestra, and twice as old as Mozart was, i will have to get this new disc, i hear it's darker, and more introspective.
I was very impressed with the happy first movement, very much in the same vein as his Clarinet Concerto, mainly because it's in the same key, it has a two minute orchestral introduction, which is of course very sunny, congenial at first, but more bubbly as it gets going [0:00-2:07], the piano when it enters is quite regal and restrained at first [2:08], but soon gets into the same spirit as the orchestral introduction, nice runs up and down the keyboard, there's a darker middle section in A Major [4:56-6:17], the piano hits some nice vibes as it stirs up a lather, very Mozartian, but also at times hard to individualise from other similar works, but certainly very enjoyable, and Uchida has this light delicate touch about her, maybe trying to imitate a fortepiano, which is very apt for this Concerto.
Here's Horowitz playing the first movement on YouTube, with Giulini conducting.
