CD1 Total
time: 62.23
Concertos for Harpsichord, 2 Violins
and Basso Continuo, KV 107 Nos 1-2-3
After Johann Christian Bach Op. 5 Nos.
2-3-4
Concerto No 1 in D KV 107 No. 1
1. Allegro 5.24
2. Andante 4.02
3. Tempo di Menuetto (Cadenzas by W.A.
Mozart) 3.59
Concerto in G KV 107 No. 2
4. Allegro 4.18
5. Allegretto (tema con 4 variazioni)
(Cadenzas by Pieter-Jan Belder) 5.27
Concerto in Eb KV 107 No. 3
6. Allegro 5.35
7. Allegretto (Cadenzas by Pieter-Jan
Belder) 3.05
Johann Christian
BACH (1735 - 1782)
'Sonates pour le Clavecin ou Piano Forte'
Opus 5
Sonata in D Op. 5 No. 2
8. Allegro di molto 4.34
9. Andante di molto 3.16
10. Minuetto 3.50
Sonata in G Op. 5 No. 3
11. Allegro 5.10
12. Allegretto 5.27
Sonata in E Op. 5 No. 4
13. Allegro 4.53
14. Rondeau, allegretto 3.21
Pieter-Jan Belder, harpsichord and clavichord
Recording: June 2001, Maria Minor Utrecht
Doopsgezinde Kerk Deventer
Producer and engineer: Arts Music Recording
Rotterdam
Musica Amphion: Remy Baudet, Marten
Boeken, baroque violins; Margaret Urquhart,
double bass
Instruments: Mozart: Harpsichord built
by Cornelis Bom (1999) after Ruckers
J.C. Bach: Clavichord, built by Cornelis
Bom (1992) after Hass
CD2 Total time: 69.29
Wolfgang Amadeus
MOZART (1756 - 1791)
Piano Concerto No. 24 in c K491
1. Allegro 13.28
2. Larghetto 7.36
3. Allegretto 8.20
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D K40 (arr.
from music by Honauer, Eckard, J. C.
Bach)
4. Allegro maestoso 4.58
5. Andante 4.37
6. Presto 3.33
Piano Concerto No. 13 in C K415
7. Allegro 10.26
8. Andante 7.52
9. Allegro 7.48
CD3 Total time: 71.32
Piano Concerto No. 15 in Bb K450
1. Allegro 11.00
2. Adagio 5.17
3. Allegro assai 7.42
Piano Concerto No. 11 in F K413
4. Allegro 9.10
5. Larghetto 7.34
6. Tempo di menuetto 5.10
Piano Concerto No. 23 in A K488
7. Allegro 10.44
8. Andante 6.13
9. Allegro 7.58
CD4 Total time: 79.31
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C K467, 'Elvira
Madigan'
1. Allegro 14.33
2. Andante 6.26
3. Allegro vivace assai 7.22
Piano Concerto No. 1 in F K37 (arr.
from music by Raupach, ?, and Honauer)
4. Allegro 5.15
5. Andante 5.30
6. Allegro 5.44
Piano Concerto No. 25 in C K503
7. Allegro maestoso 17.21
8. Andante 7.20
9. Allegretto 9.58
CD5 Total time: 66.57
Piano Concerto No. 9 in Eb K271
'Jeunehomme'
1. Allegro 10.19
2. Andantino 10.10
3. Rondeau, presto 9.15
Piano Concerto No. 2 in Bb K39
(arr. from music by Raupach and Schobert)
4. Allegro spiritoso 5.25
5. Andante staccato 3.48
6. Molto allegro 3.35
Piano Concerto No. 12 in A K414
7. Allegro 9.49
8. Andante 7.23
9. Rondeau, allegretto 6.51
CD6 Total time: 71.55
Piano Concerto No. 17 in G K453
1. Allegro 12.22
2. Andante 9.50
3. Allegretto, presto 8.00
Piano Concerto No. 5 in D K175
4. Allegro 8.07
5. Andante ma un poco adagio 7.22
6. Allegro 5.07
Piano Concerto No. 6 in Bb K238
7. Allegro aperto 7.22
8. Andante un poco adagio 5.32
9. Rondeau, allegro 7.26
CD7 total time: 72.58
Piano Concerto No. 16 in D K451
1. Allegro assai 10.50
2. Andante 5.45
3. Rondo, allegro di molto 7.06
Piano Concerto No. 8 in C K246
4. Allegro aperto 7.25
5. Andante 7.11
6. Tempo di menuetto 7.03
Piano Concerto No. 19 in F K459
7. Allegro 11.40
8. Allegretto 7.19
9. Allegro assai 7.47
CD8 total time: 65.22
Piano Concerto No. 20 in d K466
1. Allegro 13.50
2. Romanze 8.22
3. Allegro assai 7.42
Piano Concerto No. 22 in Eb K482
4. Allegro 13.54
5. Andante 8.48
6. Allegro 12.16
CD9 total time: 61.54
Piano Concerto No. 18 in Bb K456
1. Allegro vivace 12.27
2. Andante un poco sostenuto 9.34
3. Allegro vivace 7.58
Piano Concerto No. 26 in D K537 'Coronation
Concerto'
4. Allegro 14.23
5. Larghetto 6.03
6. Allegretto 10.52
CD10 total time: 64.44
Piano Concerto No. 14 in Eb K449
1. Allegro vivace 8.47
2. Andantino 6.19
3. Allegro ma non troppo 6.08
Piano Concerto No. 4 in G K41 (arr.
from music by Honauer and Raupach)
4. Allegro 4.58
5. Andante 3.49
6. Molto allegro 3.40
Piano Concerto No. 27 in Bb K595
7. Allegro 14.06
8. Larghetto 6.51
9. Rondo, allegro 9.14
Recording: Henry Wood Hall, London 1993
Recording producer/engineer: Judith
Sherman/Mike Hatch
Derek Han, piano
Philharmonia Orchestra, Paul Freeman
CD11 Total time: 63.52
Concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra
in Eb KV 365
1. Allegro 9.43
2. Andante 8.11
3. Rondo, allegro 6.48
Concerto for 3 pianos and orchestra
in F KV 242
4. Allegro 7.47
5. Adagio 8.45
6. Rondo, tempo di minuetto 5.36
7. Rondo, for piano and orchestra in
D KV 382 8.39
8. Rondo, for piano and orchestra in
A KV 386 7.54
Licensed from Hungaroton (1-6)
Licensed from Edel Classics GmbH, Germany
(7-8)
See also http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Dec01/Mozart4.htm
Comparison Recordings
of Mozart Piano Concerti:
Daniel Barenboim, Berlin
PO: #26 and 27 Warner Elatus 2564 60679-2
Roderick Simpson, Suoni Asaggiati: #5
Initium A 007
Rubinstein, Krips, Wallenstein. "Rubinstein
Collection Vol. 61" RCA 63061
Murray Perahia, ECO (complete) Sony
46441
This is the same set
as previously reviewed by my esteemed
MusicWeb colleague Kirk McElhearn, here
repackaged with a new number. As can
be seen, it consists of four recordings
boxed together.
First I will discuss
the complete numbered solo piano concertos
performed by Derek Han accompanied by
Paul Freeman and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Overall, these performances are excellent.
Try, for instance, #5, the earliest
work which consists entirely of original
Mozart music. The rich orchestral texture
with bold brass fanfares is beautifully
presented and recorded and Han’s technique
is bright and youthful. Simpson has
made an extensive study of this work
and his recording restores the original
orchestration while giving us a new
cadenza, and Han/Freeman achieve similar
results.
And with the much later
#20 in d, the most popular of all Mozart’s
piano concertos the full orchestral
textures and tragic mood are fully manifest.
Of course with a work as often recorded
as this everyone will have his or her
favourite version (mine remains the
Artur Rubinstein performance with Josef
Krips, with honourable mention going
to Serkin/Abbado, the second and third
movements only) but this Derek Han version
will probably be almost everybody’s
close second. It avoids inappropriate
excess romanticism and is clearly and
cleanly played and recorded without
any thinness.
The superlative Barenboim
recording of the last two concerti is
remarkable for its perfect balance of
sound and style; Barenboim’s cadenzas
are interesting if a little blatant
in their quotations from The Marriage
of Figaro. By comparison, Han/Freeman
play with a little less assurance, but
with more youthful enthusiasm. Han/Freeman’s
orchestral perspective has the piano
closer which also adds a sense of immediacy,
making the Barenboim with its very realistic
concert hall acoustic sound by comparison
more remote, more formal.
The piano concerto
"#7" is remarkable in being
for three pianos, and in that the "third"
piano part is very simple, which fact
no doubt led Mozart to merge it into
the other two piano parts and write
out a version for two pianos which has
the same K number. The original three
piano version is here performed here
by Zoltan Kocsis, Dezsö Ranki,
and András Schiff and the Hungarian
State Orchestra conducted by János
Ferencsik. The other concerto on this
disk was originally written for two
pianos and is "#10" in the
complete series, here performed by Zoltan
Kocsis and Dezsö Ranki, accompanied
as above. Kocsis and Schiff are among
the very finest of pianists and Ferencsik
also has many, many fine recordings
to his credit. Then, why are these performances
so uninvolving? Sometimes such things
are utterly unspecifiable. I am reminded
of another recording of a Mozart Piano
Concerto by world famous artists where
the first movement doesn’t work at all,
whereas the second and third are among
the finest versions of the work ever
played; and there, as here, one is mystified
to explain it. The best I can suggest
is that the problems come from the pianos
being recorded too close and the orchestra
sounding distant, choppy, and monotonous,
with too many missed opportunities for
the soloists and orchestra to trade
phrases and sing to each other, so it
may be mostly the recording engineers’
fault. The recording is remarkably clear
and the stereo separation exemplary;
if you are a pianist memorising these
piano parts you couldn’t have a better
recording to work with.
The concert rondos
are here performed by Annerose Schmidt
accompanied by the Dresden Philharmonia
conducted by Kurt Masur. Each of these
was probably conceived as an alternate
movement for one of the earlier concerti,
K 382 for K 175, and K 386 for K414,
and hence shame on Han/Freeman for not
including them in his series as did,
for example, Murray Perahia and Mitsuko
Uchida/Jeffrey Tate. Indeed K 382 is
one of Mozart’s most popular and frequently
heard works. However Schmidt and Masur
give us fine performances, probably
even a little better than would be performances
by Han and Freeman, so we have nothing
whatever to complain about.
Lastly, we come to
the first works in this set, the very
early orchestrations of the J. C. Bach
Sonatas. These works, along with the
numbered concerti 1 through 4, belong
in Mozart’s catalogue of arrangements
along with his orchestration of Handel’s
Messiah, his string versions of Bach
keyboard fugues. They are clearly Baroque
trio sonatas, but they just as clearly
look forward to the Classical era to
come. Fascinating, charming works they
could not be better played or recorded
than here, especially as accompanied
by excellent clavichord performances
of the original sonatas. This disk is
a must-have for any serious Mozart collector
and it appears that this disk is currently
not available in any other format
Paul Shoemaker
Pieter-Jan Belder, harpsichord and clavichord
