Pno Ctos K423/K467

A few months ago I swore to give fewer 5-star reviews -- they debase the value of stars -- but this really is great.

I have heard Pollini live eight or nine times, and he was twice uninspired, mostly good, and twice astounding: anywhere from cerebral to historic. A couple of his recordings I wish I didn't own, but the rest are well worth it. This one's near the top.

If you have his K459/K488 recording, now 30 years old, the parallels and contrasts are both notable. There was more testosterone then -- particularly in K459, which is a strange thing to say about any interpretation of that work -- than now, but a similar straightforward, focused playing, as if he trusts the music to speak for itself. I'm not accusing Pollini of playing the notes, but clever phrasing or obvious contrasts don't jump out from the restrained thread he makes of the whole progression of ideas, which are plentiful, stuck in everywhere by the marvelous composer of these warhorses, which are warhorses because they are so, so worth hearing.

He seems to be the best conductor of these works, also. The guy is just that good. Both andante movements are formed as units -- one theme leads to another in a manner that they collectively fill out a single shape. Beautiful stuff.

As a bonus, you can hear him grunting through much of both works, even during some tutti places -- intensity motivates the concentration required to make these movements such coherent units. I wonder at the notion that 18-century music is entirely intended as accompaniment to sipping tea with pinky outstretched at the proper angle. No: it can be as intense and spiritually-elevating as these works.

If I had a time machine, I'd hit Vienna in 1786 first. I have to know how Mozart would have played these concerti.

In this recording Maestro Pollini plays two popular piano concertos by Mozart (No. 17 in G major, K. 453, and No. 21 in C major, K. 467), and he also conducts the orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic. Maestro Pollini is well known especially for his Beethoven interpretations. In this recording of Mozart concertos he will steal your musical heart.
Maestro Pollini excels as a conductor! As you listen to this CD, the orchestral sound will wrap you in perfectly blended orchestral parts, which are gorgeous, and the piano parts, which are no less beautiful. There will be no booming sound of the orchestra at the expense of the piano, and vice versa, characteristic for the lesser performers/orchestras. The orchestral sound is so masterfully balanced with the piano that it is a real treat to listen to their combined sweet and beautiful voice. I am quite partial to these concertos' orchestral parts (the notes from the musical underground in which I exist as an obscure 2nd violinist reveal that I played both concertos). The orchestra is first rate, the pianist is first rate, and the conducting is first rate. But this is not the entire story. As I listen to Maestro Pollini, I feel that he is playing just for me. It is this ability of the great performers to bond and make personal musical relationships with their listeners which makes them so popular and sought after.
Please read the CD notes which address masterfully the historical and musical nuances of these concertos.
Bravo, bravissimo, bravississimo, Maestro Pollini!

Pollini is perhaps one of the last names to cross my mind when thinking of Mozartean interpreters among the living pianists. In this repertory, my first options go to Brendel, Zacharias, Lupu, Pires, Uchida and maybe two or three other pianists immersed with a lifelong devotion into the work of the Salzburg genius and making it the core of their performing activity. I associate Maurizio Pollini rather with the realm of the flamboyant virtuosity (Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Schumann, Bartok) than to the poised classical age (Haydn, Mozart, Schubert). His renditions - minutely conceived and architecturally structured - seem not favour the improvisatory joy of Mozartean scores or their labile moods. His fabulous technical skills have long been considered as over-calibrated for the simplicity and delicacy of Mozart's output. That's why - I suppose - Pollini himself avoided record Mozart for more than three decades, since his - successful, but lonely - attempt, in the company of the Vienna Philharmonic under Karl Bohm (Piano Concertos K 459 & K 488). But the time has passed, and Maurizio Pollini - getting older - came to a refinement of his style that now shades a new light - more sensitive, more human - on his performances. The precision and virtuosity of his accounts have lately not diminished, but gained in sensitivity ennobling Pollini's achievements on stage and disc.

Therefore, the release of this recording surprised me at first, but definitely incited me to include it in my collection, at least for its oddity. Achieved with the same Viennese orchestra, this Deutsche Grammophon recent release offered Pollini the opportunity to undertake the baton and lead from the keyboard two gems in the catalogue of Mozart concerti, No.17 (K 453) and No.21 (K 467).

Surprise after surprise! Pollini simply shines with so much Mozartean flair in both roles he assumes, that one can wonder why his reticence in front of this part of the standard piano repertoire for so many years. His fabulous insight knows how to balance the proceedings, imposing the soloist where this is required, and letting the full orchestral display to prevail where the atmosphere set the stage for it. Pollini's vivid finger-work is perfectly appropriate. Nothing showy or strident to blur this clean performance! The grace is over there - listen the celebrated Andante of the K 467 - but nothing mawkish menaces to occur. On contrary, a magisterial noblesse coats Mozart's work. The invigoratingly light finger-work in joyful passages (especially in the outer movements of the K 453) dispels all the disquietudes and proves Pollini equally masterful at home in all stylistic directions of his instrument.

To conclude after this live recording, I would say Maurizio Pollini seems finally to have recovered his taste for Mozart! Truly recommended!

P.S. A sequel of this recording, with the same protagonists (Pollini & Vienna Philharmonic), was devoted to Mozart concertos K 414 & K 491 and issued a year after.

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