Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Fumiko Shiraga :: Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 22 & 26 (Chamber Arrangements by Hummel

Marvelous... but then again, why change what's already perfe

D. Jack Elliot | Omaha, Nebraska | 11/07/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"There's so much to like in the performances of these transcriptions, but there's so much missing as well. Shiraga plays Hummel's piano parts with elegant phrasing and impressive virtuosity; but the piano is forced to take up so much of the missing orchestral parts that the effect of musical conversation so essential to the concerto is lost. These readings left me at once delighted and longing for the original versions. After all, the Mozart piano concerti are perhaps the most perfect works of art ever created, the closest mankind has ever come to a resolution of the tension between subject and object. On the one hand I love these pieces so much that I am eager to hear any and every performance of them that I can get my hands on, even in these small chamber ensemble reductions; but on the other hand, why change what's perfect? why would one ever want to compromise the miraculous Mozart originals? So I couldn't decide between a five-star rating and a three-star; I settled for four, averaging it out. You'll have to listen and decide for yourself."