Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer: Elizabeth Sombart
Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Pierre Vallet
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Rubicon
Catalogue: RCD1109
Release: 2023
Size: 2.08 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
CD 01
Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466
01. I. Allegro (Cadenzas by Luca Belloni)
02. II. Romanze
03. III. Allegro assai (Cadenzas by Luca Belloni)
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K467 ‘Elvira Madigan’
04. I. Allegro maestoso (Cadenzas by Luca Belloni)
05. II. Andante
06. III. Allegro assai (Cadenzas by Luca Belloni)
CD 02
Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K488
01. I. Allegro
02. II. Adagio
03. III. Allegro assai
Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K595
04. I. Allegro
05. II. Larghetto
06. III. Rondo. Allegro
The four great concertos on this new album span the years 1785 – 1791, Mozart’s last year. The range of emotions these works convey is extraordinary. No.20 in D minor left the audience at the premiere reeling. It is terse, angry and full of passion.
The C major concerto No.21, in contrast, is sunny, bright and full of optimism. No.23 in A major is bathed in a feeling of warm contentment. The wistful and heartfelt Adagio is especially striking.
No.27 in B flat of 1791 is an autumnal work of intense sadness, almost as if the composer sensed his life was coming to an end.
“Sombart’s playing is superb: technically precise, but possessing a flexibility and freedom that lets the music breath” – The Observer
This double album of Mozart concertos by pianist Elizabeth Sombart and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Pierre Vallet doesn’t exactly break new ground. It has a sound more common 40 years ago, with a modern piano and a full-size symphony orchestra, recorded in a sizable space (Henry Wood Hall). Yet it has attained a good deal of visibility, and this is because it is an unusually fine example of the type. Sombart and Vallet coordinate closely in the always unexpected interplay between soloist and orchestra. They are especially impressive in the initial handoffs in the opening movements, where the piano’s world is clearly delineated, yet its playful relationship with the orchestra comes through in full. Sample the delightful evolution from tutti to solo in the Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467. Sombart’s Mozart is on the restrained side; the often-made-melancholy Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K. 595, is straightforward, and the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, is less Beethovenian than usual. However, these decisions are fully defensible, and probably the way to go now in conventional-instrument performances is to dispense with the Romantic excesses. Those in search of a lively traditional Mozart concerto recording will find it here.