Involving,
as it does, three master musicians and a fine chamber orchestra
this was never likely to be be other than rewarding. It may
not correspond with the ways of playing Mozart at the beginning
of the twenty-first century which are fashionable at the beginning
of the twenty-first century, but it has virtues – such as high
intelligence, sympathy, certainty of purpose, grace, alertness
of interplay – which transcend questions of performance practice.
Looking
at the names of the pianists above, we might be surprised by the
presence of Sir Georg Solti, so used are we to thinking of him
as a conductor. But the young Solti appeared in public as a pianist
from the age of twelve and went on to study piano in Budapest,
with Dohnányi and Bartok. His early ambition was to make a career
as a pianist, though he soon obtained posts as assistant, at the
Salzburg Festival, to Walter and Toscanini. But the rise of anti-semitism
encouraged a move to Switzerland – where, in 1942, he won the
Geneva International Competition. Conducting, however, gradually
took over. When, in the 1980s he began to play the piano in public
again – he recorded with Murray Perahia as well as with Barenboim
and Schiff and made some chamber music recordings – he was rarely
found wanting.
The
earliest of these three works, the Concerto for Three Pianos,
was written for “Her Excellency, her Ladyship, the Countess Lodron
... and her daughters, their Ladyships the Countess Aloysia and
Giuseppa”, to quote Mozart’s own inscription on a presentation
copy of the score. Two of the parts are fairly demanding, the
third – designed for the younger of the two daughters – rather
simpler. There is some attractive counterpoint in the opening
allegro and the adagio is tuneful and gently lyrical. The rondo
which concludes the work allows each pianist to have a turn in
the limelight. The whole is a skilful exercise in tact, in writing
for specific non-professional performers and for a specific occasion
without compromising the nature of the composer’s own musical
imagination. Messrs Schiff, Barenboim and Solti play fluently,
their interplay assured and sensitive, their rhythms attractively
dancing in the third movement. At times the sound of three modern
grands does, it must be admitted, does seem rather too large and
the same might be said for the sound of the ECO’s strings. But
the ear adjusts and there is a great deal to enjoy.
The
Concerto for two Pianos makes fair demands on both its soloists,
who were originally probably Mozart and his sister Nannerl. The
parts are equally rich, there being no sense of first and second
voices here. It is a substantial, lengthy work, in which the opening
allegro begins with an orchestral introduction of some length
before both pianos enter. The sharing of themes between the two
pianos, here and in later movements, calls for some exact teamwork
and careful listening – both of which are much in evidence here.
The performance seems a little quicker than some that I have heard,
but it coheres admirably and the rhythms are crisp and precise
throughout. The modern grand pianos seem more appropriate here,
in a work more powerful and less galant than the earlier
Concerto for Three Pianos.
Solti
is the soloist in KV 466, Piano Concerto no. 20. Beethoven played
and studied this concerto and was surely influenced by it. It
has a tragic intensity in places, kits D minor materials seeming
to anticipate Don Giovanni. Much of the string writing
is complex and has an emotional expressiveness relatively new
in Mozart’s work. Indeed, there is a marked degree of emotional
intensity to the whole concerto, to which Solti largely does justice.
At times Solti’s fingering occasionally seem very slightly stiff
and lacking the very highest degree of panache and now and then
his rubato is a bit intrusive. By the very highest standards –
such as those set by, say, Perahia, also with the ECO or Brendel
with the Acdemy of St. Martin’s in the Fields – this performance
falls just a little short. But it remains thoroughly enjoyable,
as does the whole of this well-recorded CD.
Glyn Pursglove
AVAILABILITY
Buywell
Classics
Daniel Barenboim, George Solti (pianos), English Chamber Orchestra;
** András Schiff, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Georg Solti (pianos), English
Chamber Orchestra; *** Sir Georg Solti (piano), English Chamber Orchestra
