Search - Christian Zacharias :: Mozart: 21 Concertos pour piano

Good and bad join hands

Doreen Appleton | Scottsdale, Arizona | 10/21/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I suspect the recording engineer in Stuttgart took a dislike to Zacharias, because Concertos 17 and 19, which Zacharias plays very well, have harmonic distortion on the piano, but not the orchestra. A classic example of the famous inconsistency of EMI is the third movement of Concerto 11, where the volume slowly creeps upward until the music is simply too loud. I had to re-record it on my CDR, carefully lowering the volume as the movement progressed. Another problem is that the performances of Concertos 22 and 23 are old and anemic. He should have re-recorded them for this set. On the bright side, Zacharias is the first pianist since Rudolf Serkin in 1962 to play No. 14 at the proper tempo. Other concertos are rather well played, and Zacharias has a good sense of humor which is expressed in the cadenzas. Apparently this recent issue is already out of print, which is a shame, because it would be a good gift for music lovers who don't know Mozart well."

Beautiful Set, Highly Recommended!!

Kurt Leith | Vernon, CT | 04/14/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This set is out of print? That's strange as this is a very beautiful collection of Mozart's piano concertos. Each piece is played with a very smooth, polished sound, the orchestra and piano together, & each note on the piano is like a pearl of beautiful perfection...the sound quality is superb. What struck me most is the second movement of concerto #21 which is played extremely fast; it took me a few listens but the fast tempo really grew on me so much that I now like this version better than the slow, or andante pace that is usually played. This almost makes this box worth buying in itself, or maybe there's an individual CD by Christian Zacharias which has this or a similar version of number 21? I consider myself lucky that I bought this while it was in print and not going for so much money, but if you can afford it and you're looking for great recordings of these piano concertos I think you'll be well pleased with the purchase of this box set. (Not included here are Mozart's piano concertos #1-4 which he composed when very young, #'s 7 and 10 which are for more than one piano, and his two rondos for piano & orchestra, all of which are available on single CDs if you want absolutely everything. You can find nice CDs containing this material by Murray Perahia right here on Amazon.) 5 stars, I say grab it while it's still available & happy listening :-)"