MOZART: PIANO CONCERTOS 23 AND 19

MOZART: PIANO CONCERTOS 23 AND 19
DG (Recorded 1976)
Mid-Price
Maurizio Pollini, piano
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Karl Bohm, conductor


Originally issued on DG at full price in the late eighties, then at mid-price in the 25 disc series devoted to Mozart’s masterworks, Amazon.com tells me that these classic readings are now on the DG Originals line, albeit only in Australia. Whatever. At any rate, the 23rd concerto also appeared in the Maurizio Pollini edition, a fine tribute to this pianist and a great investment on the basis of a wide variety of repertoire and some amazing performances.

What, you want to know about these performances? Fine then. If you know anything about collecting Mozart, you probably know Karl Bohm based on his readings of the symphonies and serenades. All of those recordings are essential purchases, although the readings of the symphonies are not aging as well as a critic twenty years ago might have expected. These recordings, however, hold up remarkably well. That’s a credit not only to Bohm’s formidable artistry, but also to the aforementioned talents of Maurizio Pollini.

Yes, outer movements are a touch slower than we expect nowadays. Really, does it much matter when the Vienna strings sing like this? Horns and winds glow, and the music is lovingly shaped. In fact, if you don’t know or care about performance styles and just want your Mozart to be pretty, then I assure you this will take care of that. The slow movements never drag, but are full of serious purpose and amazing warmth. Mozart’s concertos are sometimes lightweight affairs, so I find mediocre readings of these works to be even duller than they likely are. The 23rd concerto does fare slightly better than the 19th, but I find the former to contain the better music as a whole.

Rather than buying a cheap disc of excerpts—or heaven knows, an expensive box of all 27 works—I’d recommend this disc and indeed the others in this series as a way to understand the great works that these concertos are. Very warmly recommended.