Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / Some Mozart "K. 488s" that I Missed!

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Some Mozart "K. 488s" that I Missed! · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  Please consider taking out a paid subscription
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  to The Piano Maven, and you can find a link to
• 0:21
  do so via my Substack page. The link is in our
• 0:26
  episode... description along with all kinds of
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  cool links to recordings i'm going to be talking
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  about on this episode paid subscribers get a
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  free download at the beginning of every month
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  how cool is that and your support helps keep
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  this podcast alive and kicking throughout the
• 0:46
  year I remember when Frank Sinatra went into
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  a very brief retirement, I think in 1971, and
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  then he came back with an album not too long
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  after called Old Blue Eyes Is Back. And then
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  the album after that was something that was titled
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  Some Nice Things I Missed. And I'm only talking
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  about that because there were some recordings
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  of the Mozart Concerto, Kershaw 488, Concerto
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  No. 23 in A Major, that I missed, according to
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  our wonderful listeners, because... On our last
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  episode, I was talking about recordings of 488,
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  and I invited you to chime in with some of your
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  favorites or to mention those that perhaps I
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  forgot to mention. And sure enough, I heard from
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  so many of you, and you've given me some ideas
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  about recordings that I didn't talk about a few
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  days ago, so I thought I would... make up for
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  it. I would make amends by talking about a couple
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  of these recordings of Kershaw 488, which I think
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  are really wonderful. For example, I totally
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  forgot. to talk about the recording of 488 with
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  the great British pianist Solomon. This is a
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  recording that dates from 1955. And like the
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  Walter Gieseking recording I talked about, it
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  also features the Philharmonia Orchestra. And
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  I'm talking about the Philharmonia in the early
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  1950s, not too long after Walter Legge formed
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  the orchestra. And it was... in its first great
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  period of glory. But about Solomon's playing
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  of the Mozart concerto, I think he has more rhythmic
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  backbone to his phrasing than Gieseking, although
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  he doesn't quite match Gieseking's je perlais
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  legato and the slow movement that I was raving
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  about. But his conductor, Herbert Menges, I think
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  is a more interesting accompanist for Solomon
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  than Herbert von Karajan was for Gieseking. Just
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  to give you one example, if you listen to this
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  recording, Notice how Herbert Menges brings out
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  those bassoon counterlines in the slow movement
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  that Corian doesn't exactly suppress, but Corian
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  goes for a more blended orchestral image than
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  Menges. So I'm grateful to have been reminded
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  about the Solomon recording. And one of you also
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  reminded me about the live recording with Grigory
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  Sokolov with Trevor Pinnock conducting the Mahler
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  Chamber Orchestra. I actually reviewed this for
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  Gramophone when it came out. My dear friend and
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  colleague David Hurwitz did not like this recording
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  one bit. I can understand why. just in terms
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  of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra's emaciated string
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  tone. You know, if you listen to that anemic
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  sound in first movement, second subject. It's
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  kind of awful. And also the diffuse balance in
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  the loud tooties, which I think results from
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  the slightly distant and overly resonant engineering.
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  But I think Sokolov, for his part, plays wonderfully
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  well. And he achieves this arresting fusion of
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  vitality and refinement. And he participates
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  in the first movement's opening ritornello. And
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  he imbues the development section with... dynamic
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  inflections that I think really illuminate Mozart's
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  harmonic turns and surprises. For my taste, the
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  adagio is arguably too slow for the woodwind
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  soloists to shape their lines beyond, make sure
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  you have just enough breath support. And, you
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  know, actually the bassoon player here must have
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  lungs the size of King Kong, you know. But Sokolov's
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  pinpointed articulation and his absolutely hypnotic
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  legato touch really deserve. talking about. It's
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  really impressive. But I think the pianist comes
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  even more into his own in the finale with gorgeous
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  but stylistically apt tonal gradations and crisply
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  shaded Alberti basses in the left hand. He doesn't
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  leave any notes unaccounted for, so pianistically
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  it's really quite remarkable. Another listener
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  took issue with my description of Mikhail Pletnev's
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  super -fast tempo for the finale as what I called
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  a hostile takeover of the movement. And he cited
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  that the recording by Zoltan Koscius was comparably
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  speedy. And that is true. But I did listen again
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  to the Zoltan Koscius recording, which I did
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  not talk about. in the other episode. It's with
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  Janos Rola conducting the Franz Liszt Chamber
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  Orchestra. And actually, both outer movements
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  are on the fast side, but... What makes this
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  interpretation really work for me is the horizontal
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  clarity and how all of the lines are very well
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  balanced and clear, not just in the orchestra,
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  but also in the pianist's pointed articulation.
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  And he always manages to sing no matter what
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  the tempo. I don't have this physical disc, actually.
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  I never owned it. So I had to hear it on YouTube
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  and also on Spotify. It appears to be a release
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  from 1984 on Hungariton. I'm not sure if it was
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  recorded earlier or not. But it has nothing to
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  do with Zoltan Koscius and his Phillips catalog.
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  And Phillips was the label for whom Koscius mostly
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  was recording in the 1980s and 90s. Anyway, there
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  is a lot of personality in this recording, and
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  it certainly held my attention. And another...
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  listener recommended a recording that I had not
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  even known about featuring the great Polish pianist
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  Ewa Pobloska from 1991, I believe, with Jersey...
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  Maximilk conducting the Polish Chamber Orchestra.
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  And this was coupled with the D minor concerto,
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  Kershaw 466. There was a vinyl release on the
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  Musa label. And I don't know if this has been
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  on CD. I'm not sure. But I did hear it via YouTube.
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  And this is completely the opposite of the Kosciusz
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  recording because the interpretation stresses
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  songfulness. lyricism and patience. And the strings
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  just sing out very sweetly, but never cloyingly.
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  And Eva Pobloska's beautifully shaped entrance
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  after the first movement, Ritornello, is indicative
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  of what... will happen as she unfolds everything
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  in the concerto. She relaxes a little bit with
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  the second subject, but again, never in a cloying
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  or sentimental way. It's very heartfelt and meaningful
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  piano playing. And not one of the repeated notes
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  in that second subject, not one of those repeated
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  notes sound the same. It's really sung. And the
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  slow movement, is very spacious and deliberate.
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  Maybe it's a tad too slow for my taste, but it
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  is so well sustained, and it's almost like the
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  feeling of floating down the river on a raft
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  very slowly, or maybe the feeling of an acid
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  trip. Not that I've ever done acid. I never did
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  and never will, despite my being a big, grateful,
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  dead fan. Okay, now you know I'm a deadhead.
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  Although the finale with Pabloska and Janos Wola
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  is on the fast side, it sounds buoyant rather
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  than driven, with a sense of air in between the
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  notes. Now, that's a cliché I fall back on way
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  too often, the air in between the notes. But
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  if you listen to this recording, and I provided
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  a link to hear it, I bet that you will understand
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  what I mean. I've posted links to these recordings
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  in our episode description. And again, thank
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  you for your feedback and thank you for reminding
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  me about these worthy recordings of Mozart's
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  Concerto Cursal 488 that I missed in my earlier
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  episode about this work. I want to give you a
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  heads up. Some of you have been asking me about
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  that huge box set from Mellow Classic devoted
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  to the pianist Walter Gieseking with 29 CDs.
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  Well, it took me some time to listen to all of
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  it carefully, but I did, and I recently submitted
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  a review to International Piano Magazine, and
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  I took copious notes. So our next episode will
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  be a sneak preview of the review in a way, and
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  I'll be talking about the geese -sicking box.
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  So I am sure that you want to tune in for that.
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  And yes, there is a recording of 488 in that
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  box, but you'll find out about it in the next
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  episode. This is Jed Disler, and you've been
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  listening to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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  guide to piano recordings. Thank you for listening,
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  and I look forward to being... with you for our
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  next episode