Octo_Russ

Mozart - Piano Concerto 20 [Schmidt/Masur-Dresdner Philharmonie] 

Those that follow this Blog, may see a sort of a pattern in my playing here, i seem to play the same Classical works over and over again [though certainly not necessarily the same performers], and here's Mozart's Piano Concerto 20 again [it's appeared 3 other times in my Blog], the main reason for this is that i love certain works, therefore i buy different versions of that which i love, so there's lots to play and get to know of specific works, each one helps me to fall in love with the next.

This was another one of those 'played on the way to Church discs', the weather's getting nice again, and it's good to get your lungs full of fresh air, and your ears full of fresh sounds.

AnneRose Schmidt was born in Germany in 1936, i take it the recording was made in 1973, but sounds quite modern, actually the DigiPak cover makes it look very modern, but i'm almost certain it's not AnneRose Schmidt on the front [photo by Elke Van De Velde], but just a model, and it's what attracted me to the disc, not so much the pretty girl, but the clever shot, taken upside down on the grass, well lit and in a very clever pose, i really like this series by Berlin Classics, called 'basics', and that's very apt, you get a glossy DigiPak with the bare minimum, no booklet whatsoever, and no notes on the inside cover, just a repeat of what's on the back cover, and yet i like this series very much, they're mainly landscape pictures with real atmosphere.

I just love the opening movement of this work [and the opening of this opening movement!], and only just last month i was extolling the same with Barenboim [27th March 2011], the braying of those double basses at the very beginning gives it it's nice D Minor dark and mysterious discord [0:00-0:14], until the explosion by the strings / woodwind [0:26-0:38], and an even bigger forte explosion right after by the high and low strings [0:47-0:55], and it just gets into a heady frantic violin surge [1:15+], right up until the piano first comes in [2:13], this is what Mozart is made of at his best, the intro / appetizer is in many ways more filling than the main course!,

Here's the exciting Friedrich Gulda playing and conducting the first movement on YouTube.