PIANO CONCERTOS 20 & 27

Ronald Brautigam (fortepiano) & Die Kölner Akademie, Michael Alexander Willens

Ongeveer 50 jaar na zijn compositie in 1785 domineerde Concerto Nr. 20 de concertzalen en blijft het een van Mozarts meest populaire pianoconcerten. Beethoven was een van de vroege bewonderaars van het werk; hij speelde het op een benefietconcert voor Mozarts weduwe in maart 1795. Zes jaar na het D mineur concerto, in januari 1791, voltooide Mozart Concerto No. 27 en voerde het twee maanden later voor het eerst uit. Het was zijn laatste publieke optreden als solist. Het concerto is vaak verweten een berustende toon te hebben, alsof het was gecomponeerd met het vooruitzicht van het naderende einde in gedachten. Deze veronderstelling is volkomen ongegrond, want Mozart was al twee jaar eerder met de compositie begonnen. Het is waar dat hij hier meer in zichzelf gekeerd lijkt dan in de andere werken van het genre. Hij was duidelijk op zoek naar een nieuwe sublieme vorm van expressie.

Among the most widely performed of Mozart’s piano concertos for a good half century after its composition in 1785, the Concerto No.20 in D minor still assumes a commanding place in the concert hall. Among its early devotees was Beethoven, who performed the work at a benefit concert for Mozart’s widow in March 1795 and who may well have found much to admire in the work’s brooding opening, characterized by syncopations and later punctuated by more aggressive outbursts; in his informative liner notes, the Mozart scholar John Irving goes so far as to call it ‘Mozart’s grittiest concerto’. Six years after the D minor concerto, in January 1791, the composer completed the Piano Concerto No.27 in B flat major, K595, giving the first performance of it two months later. This was to be his last public appearance as a soloist, and the concerto has sometimes been considered as a work in which the typical sparkle of Mozart’s virtuosity is tempered by resignation, as if the composer were already aware of his imminent demise. Such an interpretation is contradicted by a close study of the autograph manuscript, however: the concerto appears to have been begun two full years before it was completed. Its language is nevertheless more introverted than most of Mozart’s works in the genre: he seems to be aiming for a sublime delicacy of expression rarely attempted elsewhere in his concerto output. These two exceptional works are here performed by Ronald Brautigam and Die Kölner Akademie, on their fifth disc of Mozart’s concertos – an ongoing series which has been described as ‘a lucky break and a true delight’ in the German magazine Piano News.

Mozart:
 Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466
 Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K595

"Only the terminally averse to the fortepiano and/or smallish orchestras need stay away from any of these recordings...The smallish orchestra and the solo instrument are well balanced so that the former sounds full-bodied; not large-scale, but by no means pint-sized or desiccated...and the soloist shines without being too forward."
MusicWeb International - 27th September 2013

"While I wouldn't always want to hear it like this, Brautigam's performance is certainly refreshing...swiftness is a feature of all the performances here...His articulation is a model of clarity, his passagework powerfully directed."
Gramophone Magazine - February 2014

"Brautigam and Michael Alexander Willens are never exactly slouches when it comes to tempos, and they give a breathlessly agitated account of the opening movement of the D minor Concerto K466...the slow movement of (K595) is decidedly on the flowing side...but the performance on the whole is one that commands attention. Recommended."
BBC Music Magazine - April 2014 ****