Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Benjamin Britten, English Chamber Orchestra :: Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22 / Sinfonia Concertante

This live recording has all the immediacy of a performance. Under Britten, a committed Mozartian, the orchestra is wonderful, the winds unusually prominent; Richter plays the piano concerto beautifully, with pristine purity, great vitality, lyricism, elegant phrasing, poised rhythmic flexibility, and expressiveness. Britten's cadenzas exploit his virtuosity, but seem to reflect Mozart in a distorting mirror. Brainin and Schidlof's playing of the Concertante, 15 years after their lovely youthful first recording, sounds even better, as does the orchestra, and is just as brilliant and expressive. Britten undoubtedly influenced the interpretive differences between the two performances but, though some of the changes create more depth and contrast, he is not in complete agreement with his soloists. The first movement, which is unusually slow, seems to proceed at two different tempos; they keep urging forward, finally cutting loose in the cadenza. However, the second movement is more flowing, intense, mournful and anguished, the finale brisker, less free, but with bigger ritards. Both versions are well worth hearing. --Edith Eisler