Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Anima Eterna Orchestra, Jos van Immerseel :: Mozart: Complete Piano Concertos / Jos van Immerseel, fortepiano / Anima Eterna Orchestra

Beautifully Performed and a Bargain

Virginia Opera Fan | Falls Church, VA USA | 07/05/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To get a couple of minor negatives out of the way first: This is an integral of the original solo concertos only. You won't get the four juvenile arrangements of other composers' work for the piano and orchestra. The three piano concerto is missing. More regrettably, so is the duo piano concerto. Notes are minimal and in German only, so newcomers won't find much in the way of background on the music or the performers. The 5 star rating is based upon the performances, not for the presentation.



Those negatives aside, I am glad I bought the set. Immerseel's performances on a sweet-toned fortepiano are technically polished, well inflected and have all sorts of nicely turned improvisation-like touches. He also plays continuo in the tuttis. The period instrument orchestra acquits itself well. The tension between the fortepiano, wind band, and strings is much easier to put across with period instruments. The acoustic is intimate but lively and very nicely recorded.



I also own the Bilson/Gardiner Archiv cycle and the torso of the aborted Levin/Hogwood effort. The latter was an unfortunate casualty of the downturn in the recording industry a few years back and would probably have been the preferred cycle, for Levin's improvised cadenzas alone. If you can live with the omissions in Immerseel's work, you won't be disappointed if you are in the market for a period instrument cycle. The performances are top drawer and at roughly $6 per disc a bargain. The Bilson/Gardiner effort is a little more expensive in its current mid-price issue and includes the multiple piano concertos, but also omitting the four early arrangements."

Delicious

Larry VanDeSande | 07/17/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've heard about every major recording (and minor) of Mozart's piano concertos. I even bought Bilson's outing with Gardiner and the EBS. But I'll probably buy this one too, now, after having heard it all awhile back. Even if you hate the fortepiano, you may well like the one Immerseel plays here. It's really delicious. Immerseel's orchestra is top-notch; his playing is full of nuance and character, the recorded sound is to die for, consistency from Concerto to Concerto is first-rate. This is a truly outstanding piece of work. I'd buy it before it goes out of print...as a matter of fact, I better get on that.."

Beautifully done, temperate, wonderful sounding and constant

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 07/13/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am 100 percent in harmony with the other reviewers that gave this set 5 stars. It is a wonderful rendition of Mozart's known concertos on 10 separate disks grouped in a box. Jos von Immerseel, one of the heavyweights of period performance, plays period keyboard and conducts his orchestra, Anime Eternal, in these early 1990s recordings that sound splendid, spacious, and highly detailed.



Whether you are listening to the joyous tread of the early Concerto No. 5, or one of the mature minor key concerti, or the final incomparable Concerto No. 27, Immerseel takes you on a journey of delight and discovery with playing and recording that is uniformly outstanding throughout the collection.



Immerseel's playing is always tempered by the moderation that keeps Mozart from becoming Beethoven. Indeed, I find Immerseel more temrperamentally suited to Mozart than Beethoven, based on his recordings of Ludwig van's Concerti Nos. 1-5. While those are good and No. 4 is great, they are not performed with the stylistic qualities or level of spit and polish he and his band regularly demonstrate in Mozart.



Anime Eterna plays and responds wonderfully for the maestro-soloist in this set. The period strings don't have the luster of modern steel strings but they play well and don't sound like iron on iron. Meanwhile, the woodwinds, brass and timpani all perform admirably and they capture every nuance Mozart put into these scores.



This set is a keeper for anyone that wants to hear Mozart played on instruments and in sound that may have mimicked what it was like in his day. I've heard a few of the competing period performances in Mozart and none impressed me like Immerseel and Anime Eterna. If you put this set on your shelf next to Buchbinder's grand piano box with Vienna Symphony, you are equipped well enough in this repertoire to outlast most competition for the next quarter-century."