Nanut: Mozart – Concertos for piano no.21 & 24 (FLAC)

Performer: Dubravka Tomsic
Orchestra: Ljubljana Radio Orchestra
Conductor: Anton Nanut
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Audio CD
Format: FLAC (tracks+cue)
Label: Atlantic
Size: 224 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes

1. Piano Concerto No 21 In C Major, K 476-Allegro
2. Piano Concerto No 21 In C Major, K 476- Andante
3. Piano Concerto No 21 In C Major, K 476- Allegro Vivace Assasi
4. Piano Concerto No 24 In C Minor, K 491- Allegro
5. Piano Concerto No 24 In C Minor, K 491- Larghetto
6. Piano Concerto No 24 In C Minor, K 491- Allegretto

# Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major (“Elvira Madigan”) K. 467
Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performed by Ljubljana Radio Orchestra
with Dubravka Tomsic
Conducted by Anton Nanut

# Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491
Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performed by Ljubljana Radio Orchestra
with Dubravka Tomsic
Conducted by Anton Nanut

Of the thousands of classical music CDs I own, this one would be, believe it or not, the one I’d choose to take to the proverbial desert island. The reading of the 24th concerto, the C minor, is actually not very good; but the 21st, in C major, I consider to be the most perfect work of art ever created (yes, really), and it here receives the best performance I’ve ever heard (and I’ve heard dozens). I’ve listened to this recording at least 250 times, I’d say, in the past twelve years.

Now, I must admit a certain bias. It was by repeatedly listening to this recording of the C major concerto that I learned to love classical music, when I was 16 or 17 years old. So there is a certain extent to which my affinity for it is more for the fond memories and meaningful personal experiences with which I associate it, and not only for the music itself. And in fact, for as much as it is my favorite recording, I don’t consider it to be perfect. It’s played just a hair too fast, perhaps, and I could certainly see how some might feel that Tomsic rushes through the phrasing. Furthermore the Ljubljana Radio Orchestra, while they play ably here, are not a world-class ensemble.

Nevertheless, I have actively searched for many years now for a reading on disc the equal of this one, and have never found it. Perahia and the English Chamber Orchestra are a bit too plodding and fail to imbue the music with enough rhythmic momentum. Jando and Concentus Hungaricus on Naxos are a touch on the lightweight side in their interpretation, not capturing all of the emotional depth that K467 has in it. Pires, Abbado, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe don’t quite capture the architecture and structural thrust of the piece… they’re a bit too “pretty” about it. Cadasesus and Szell with the Cleveland Orchestra, though Cadasesus is certainly poetic, are far too old-fashioned, playing the piece very, very slowly and smothering textural nuance and rhythmic sublety in the opaque sonority of an orchestra and venue suited to Brahms and Mahler but all wrong for Mozart.

The one reading I know of that offers serious competition to this one is Bilson with Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists. It is only in the case of that interpretation that I will admit the possibility of preferring Tomsic and the Ljubljana Radio Orchestra for sentimental rather than musical reasons.