Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - Piano Concerto No. 9 in E Flat Major, K. 271; Piano Concerto No. 12 in A Major, K. 414 (1996) Cover Front Album Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Conductor Christopher Hogwood Orchestra / Ensemble I The Academy of Ancient Music Length 55:43 Format CD Genre Concerto; Piano Concerto Index 351 Out of Print Yes Musicians Soloist Levin Credits Producer Chris Sayers Label L'Oiseau-Lyre Track List 01 Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, K271: I. Allegro 10:29 02 Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, K271: II. Andantino 10:04 03 Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, K271: III. Rondeau: Presto 10:12 04 Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K414: I. Allegro 10:08 05 Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K414: II. Andante 08:07 06 Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K414: III. Rondeau: Allegretto 06:43 Personal Purchase Date 7/8/2002 Value $18.00 Store Amazon.com zShops Condition 100% Nationality Austrian Period Classical Details Studio Walthamstow Town Hall, London Catalog Number 443 328-2 Live No Recording Date 8/1/1993 Spars DDD Reissue No Sound Stereo Notes Robert Levin: Fortepiano (Paul McNulty, Amsterdam 1986, after Johann Andreas Stein, c. 1785) Cadenzas: Robert Levin Essay: Cliff Eisen, 1994 Essay: "A Note on Performance and Improvisation" by Robert Levin Gramophone review: "This record inaugurates a new series of Mozart piano concertos on period instruments. Robert Levin will be familiar to Mozartians, not only for his playing but also for his scholarship - he made a persuasive 'reconstruction' of the doubtful wind concertante (K297b) and he has done a completion of the Requiem. As a pianist, he appeared in the South Bank bicentenary events in 1991 and made a considerable impression (as I have heard him do elsewhere) with his playing and especially his improvised cadenzas. This first CD is highly attractive and enjoyable on every plane. As he starts with the one concerto in which the piano enters at once, K271, you don't have long to wait before you hear his crisp tone, precise articulation and spruce rhythms. His pianism is athletic, alert and very neatly pointed. He makes much of the quicksilver changes of mood in the music, emphasizing them by rhythmic means rather than stressing continuity of line. In the slow movement of K271 he shows a keen sensitivity to the ebb and flow of tension in the music; he has, and he conveys, a strong sense of the direction each phrase is taking, its destiny implicit from its beginning. The articulation in the finale is delightfully clear, though I wish he made less of the caesuras in the rondo theme (the rhythm seems to me a little too much flexed: though I admit most pianists do it this way). "The cadenzas are improvised, and (in the best sense) sound it. My spies tell me that he did in fact record a selection of cadenzas - two sets survive for this concerto and K414 - which was no doubt a wise 'insurance', but what he has chosen is a selection of new ones, fluently and brilliantly done, very much in Mozart's spirit and to Mozart's pattern and indeed quoting material from one of Mozart's sets (which in a way is almost inevitable, given the way Mozart treats his ideas). In the third there are several 'lead-ins', to the recurrences of the rondo theme, and here too he does something that isn't Mozart but is unquestionably Mozartian. My only reservation, a mild one, is that in the first movement cadenza he launches in a little too speedily and aggressively. Levin's accompanying note argues that using new cadenzas preserves the spirit of spontaniety, especially as we all know the old ones backwards by now; that is true, although anyone who plays this disc repeatedly will soon know the new ones too. But the policy seems to me the right one, and there is indeed a sense of something fresh and exciting about the performances. "In K414, too, there is the same emphasis on characterizing the music strongly, even at the cost of rhythmic flow from time to time. Once or twice, in the first movement, I thought the effect a shade didactic, as if Levin were determined we shouldn't miss some particular point, but the effect is never overstretched or anything other than attentively musical. In the slow movement he draws a beautifully clear line, with his very precise fingerwork; in the finale too the detail is carefully placed. Again, the cadenzas here follow Mozart's design but are his own. I had rather expected there to be a good deal of ornamentation to the standard text, but in fact Levin is quite restrained, adding notes only where the whim takes him - and his whim is restrained and tasteful. "I tried the Bilson/Gardiner recordings (now available only in a nine-CD box), the first set on a fortepiano, which for some time have set a standard, alongside these. Bilson and Levin come from the same background and tradition and are friends and colleagues (as indeed you can hear in the K365 recording in the Bilson set). The differences are not great. Bilson comes over as preferring a smoother and more natural flow, and tends to sound warmer and, expressively speaking, slightly more spontaneous. Levin's instrument, by Paul McNulty after various contemporary ones (principally a J. A. Stein of about 1785), is much brighter-toned and exceptionally even in quality, and he stands out from the orchestra more sharply. The support offered by Christopher Hogwood and the AAM is lively and rhythmically alert, with some nicely shaped detail and a proper touch of swagger to the tuttis. The orchestral playing is superior to that on the Bilson versions which were made in the relatively early days of the period-performance era. In accordance with what is known of Salzburg practice in Mozart's time, K271 is recorded without cellos: the strings are 8.6.4.0.3. One is scarcely aware of any gap in the texture. Altogether a very impressive and enjoyable disc, with a happy air of adventure: a splendid augury for the series."