Mozart - Piano Concerto 20 [Brendel/ Mackerras-Scottish Chamber Orchestra]
It's great to have this coupling, with Mozart's two Minor key mature piano Concertos together, they make an apt 'twin', and like yesterday this is in D Minor also, and my favourite Mozart Piano Concerto, and my favourite Pianist too!, and with a Chamber Orchestra, it's perfect for Mozart, altogether a great combination, this disc has featured highly in my Blog before [20th October 2011 & 28th October 2012].
Alfred Brendel is Austrian, he's now 84 and retired, he recorded this disc in 1998, the front booklet cover shows a grainy black & white photo of Brendel's head [by Regina Schmeken], a mustard coloured band at the bottom, with Mozart in large letters, and different fonts of black and white for the rest, it's a great and clever idea, the back inlay is roughly the same, all cleverly done.
I just can't help loving this opening movement Allegro, it has some of the greatest Mozartian ideas, it reminds me of ideas in his Requiem [also in D Minor], braying brass, instruments seemingly grating on each other, but in actuality sounding the other sort of great!, the introduction by the orchestra is a moment to savour, full of anxiety and trouble, high strings and low strings competing against each other [0:00-0:31], and the brass come in shocking us with their brashness [0:31+], if the D in D Minor represents Death in his Requiem, then D minor here stands for Danger, themes of this opening are repeated by the orchestra as the introduction [0:00-2:24], the piano has at first a more brighter view of the music, while the orchestra remains dissonant, but quickly the piano adopts the same dark forebodings [2:57+], it's so easy to examine every little phrase by Mozart, and find something incredible in there, this work is so choc full of great things everywhere, rarely but at certain points you can hear Brendel groaning, really getting into his playing, like some idee fixe, the opening motif keeps coming back again and again, and it's such a joy to hear, it creates an incredible power, Brendel uses his own cadenza in this movement [11:17-13:08], strange at first, as your expecting the usual, but it's actually good to hear music composed by Brendel!, of course it's kept around the themes of Mozart's music, and it fits within the era of the times, Brendel's a great exponent of Mozart.
Here's Brendel playing the first movement on YouTube.
Alfred Brendel is Austrian, he's now 84 and retired, he recorded this disc in 1998, the front booklet cover shows a grainy black & white photo of Brendel's head [by Regina Schmeken], a mustard coloured band at the bottom, with Mozart in large letters, and different fonts of black and white for the rest, it's a great and clever idea, the back inlay is roughly the same, all cleverly done.
I just can't help loving this opening movement Allegro, it has some of the greatest Mozartian ideas, it reminds me of ideas in his Requiem [also in D Minor], braying brass, instruments seemingly grating on each other, but in actuality sounding the other sort of great!, the introduction by the orchestra is a moment to savour, full of anxiety and trouble, high strings and low strings competing against each other [0:00-0:31], and the brass come in shocking us with their brashness [0:31+], if the D in D Minor represents Death in his Requiem, then D minor here stands for Danger, themes of this opening are repeated by the orchestra as the introduction [0:00-2:24], the piano has at first a more brighter view of the music, while the orchestra remains dissonant, but quickly the piano adopts the same dark forebodings [2:57+], it's so easy to examine every little phrase by Mozart, and find something incredible in there, this work is so choc full of great things everywhere, rarely but at certain points you can hear Brendel groaning, really getting into his playing, like some idee fixe, the opening motif keeps coming back again and again, and it's such a joy to hear, it creates an incredible power, Brendel uses his own cadenza in this movement [11:17-13:08], strange at first, as your expecting the usual, but it's actually good to hear music composed by Brendel!, of course it's kept around the themes of Mozart's music, and it fits within the era of the times, Brendel's a great exponent of Mozart.
Here's Brendel playing the first movement on YouTube.
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