Piano concerto no. 23

"Old-instrument orchestras have flourished in recent years, but the fortepiano has had a harder time ... Here, however, a veteran pianist takes on the challenge of an 18th-century piano and triumphs. With Nikolaus Harnoncourt's inspired and punchy direction, both Concentus Musicus Wien and Rudolf Buchbinder sound as if they are playing full out ... The sonic variety of wind, strings and keyboard almost cinematic in its intensity. More, please".

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"1786 ist sein produktivstes Jahr, Mozart verausgabt sich, er feiert Partys, gibt Spieleabende in seiner Wohnung - vor allem aber komponiert er unendlich viel, bis spät in die Nacht, als wollte er seinem Publikum alles geben, was er in sich hat ... Schlicht und unaufgeregt, geradezu abgeklärt spielen Leif Ove Andsnes und das Mahler Chamber Orchestra das A-Dur-Konzert ... Dieser Mozart funkelt und spricht in vielen Farben - eine Empfehlung für Mozart-Fans und alle, die es werden wollen".

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"I wish more CDs were like this with genres refreshingly mixed in concert fashion. Relive what the first audience heard in the Don Giovanni Overture: loud opening chords ... Piano Concerto 23 maintains the optimism ... The thread of angst from the Don Giovanni overture through Adagio of Concerto 23, comes to fulfilment in Symphony 40 ... The Allegro assai finale, as with Don Giovanni, is all fire and brimstone ... Chauvin catches the sheer wildness amid the virtuoso tour-de-force".

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"Presto disc of the week: About halfway through the first movement [of the Rachmaninov], the performance suddenly kicks into another gear altogether ... Quite honestly, (and please forgive my overeffusiveness!), this performance is so terrifyingly and monumentally phenomenal that mere wrong notes and de-tuned instruments can do nothing to dent its effect!".

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"Recording of the month: Grigory Sokolov is always a mesmerising pianist in his own right - almost nothing I have heard from him has been other than revelatory ... If his performance of the Mozart concerto on these discs recalls Gilels and Solomon, then it is Rachmaninov alone who stands as the only point of comparison, or reference, in the Rachmaninov concerto. This is a fabulous and absolutely essential release that demands to be heard".

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"Der er et godt tempo på i begge koncerter, og det kan Sokolov som få andre gennemføre og alligevel holde præcisionen. Det er forrygende og helt i orden i Rachmaninovs koncert med den uimodståelige åbning. Her er vidunderligt indlevede steder, men i Mozart kan nogle tempi være i overkanten. Og dog: Hør den gribende begyndelse af adagioen".

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"Årets bedste klassiske oplevelser: Giv os Grigory Sokolov i en hvilken som helst musik. Den russiske pianist går aldrig på kompromis og er derfor en sjældenhed ... W.A. Mozarts klaverkoncert nr. 23 og Rachmaninovs tredje bliver som gennemlyst af hans bløde anslag og afslører hemmeligheder i hver eneste takt".

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"If you're still sceptical about Mozart concertos on the fortepiano, these performances, occasionally controversial but always brimming with character, could be an ear-opener".

"These days it might sound like a cheap cliché to suggest that a new recording of a brace of Mozart piano concertos could cast any novel perspectives upon them, but that this extraordinary new issue does so by the bucket load is beyond dispute. Simply put, these accounts ... afford some of the most arresting and absorbing music-making I've encountered for some time ... Unmissable!".

"Leif Ove Andsnes följer upp albumet 'Mozart 1785' med ännu en inspelning i samma stil. Här är det frågan om stycken som tonsättaren komponerade trettio år gammal, 1786, ett år som bland annat såg premiären av Figaros bryllop, men också 23:e och 24:e pianokonserten. Andsnes är en makalöst driven musiker och få pianister kan få Mozarts virtuosa passager att låta så lekande lätt. Andra må ha hittat fler nyanser, men kärleken till Mozart går här inte att ta miste på".

"Editor's choice: I was lucky enough to review the first volume of 'Mozart Momentum' and this second one, centred around 1786. continues the exploration in the most compelling way imaginable. It takes us from large-scale concertos down to the solo piano Rondo, K485, which Andsnes elevates to veritable monodrama with his sensitivity to its invention ... Time and again Andsnes had me reaching for the score to confirm things I'd never noticed before ... Some of the finest Mozart-playing on the planet".

"Staier's approach is of the interventionist type, playing in introductions and tuttis and ornamenting freely. Too freely, perhaps ... rather like a garrulous dinner guest who dominates conversation ... That's a shame, as the G minor Symphony receives a truly involving reading, with plenty of imatinative phrasing and sufficient focus on the winds - the all-important clarinets and horns especially".

"Sokolov fans among live broadcast collectors ... have long considered the pianist's 1995 Proms performance of the Rachmaninov Third a holy grail, and with good reason. Once past the deceptively sedate opening theme, Sokolov nonchalantly flies, taking the vertiginous passagework in suave stride in the manner of the composer himself and the late Zoltan Kocsis, yet accounting for plenty of buried motifs and inner voices".

"Vurdering: Editor's choice" - "Imogen Cooper's strongly projected, stylistically sensitive performance, recorded in the glowing acoustic of the Sage, Gateshead, stands up even alongside such distinguished modern versions as Uchida, Brendel and Schiff ... Anyone ... will find Cooper and the Northern Sinfonia amongt the subtlest, liveliest and most probing of Mozartians".