Ronald Brautigam - Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 19 & 23 (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Ronald Brautigam has been described as ‘an absolutely instinctive Mozartian… with melodic playing of consummate beauty’ (International Record Review), and he is once again supported by the period orchestra Die Kölner Akademie conducted by Michael Alexander Willens in a partnership which more than one reviewer has termed ‘ideal’.

In just two years, between 1784 and 1786, Mozart composed no less than twelve piano concertos – a staggering number. Often described as one of the most light-hearted and buoyant among these is the Concerto in F major K459, sometimes called ‘the second Coronation Concerto’. The nickname comes from the fact that Mozart would later choose to perform it, along with the ‘Coronation Concerto’ in D major, during the festivities surrounding the coronation of Emperor Leopold II in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1790. Its companion work on this fourth disc in Ronald Brautigam’s survey hails from the same period: begun in 1784, the Concerto in A major K488 was completed in March 1786, at the same time as Mozart was putting the finishing touches to his opera Le nozze di Figaro. It is one of only three piano concertos in which Mozart uses clarinets in the orchestra, resulting in a very particular sound world, especially in the magical slow movement. Mozart clearly held the work in high regard, and described it as one of his most select compositions ‘which I keep just for myself and an élite circle of music lovers’, and later audiences have agreed with him.

The Mozart concerto recordings by fortepianist Ronald Brautigam and the Kölner Akademie under Michael Alexander Willens have been quite controversial, and the potential general buyer is advised to sample extensively if possible in order to determine which camp he or she might fall into. On one hand are several positives. The historical forces are accurate, with a small but not minuscule orchestra and a delightful, sparkling copy of an Anton Walter piano by Americo-Czech builder Paul McNulty. The very brisk Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, K. 459, has an original treatment of the movement tempi: the opening movement is taken at a clip considerably faster than its Allegro marking would indicate (there's some evidence that Mozart intended it this way), and that gives Brautigam and Willens room to take the unusual middle movement at its marked Allegretto speed. The entire performance is sharp, edgy, and perfectly coordinated, and BIS' hybrid SACD engineering, executed at a Deutschland Radio chamber music studio in Cologne and sampled here on a good conventional stereo, is superb. Then there are aspects many listeners will perceive as negatives. These include an expressionless dryness that goes well beyond what one expects from the elimination of vibrato in the strings, a performance of the slow movement of the Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488, that is seemingly insensible to the music's striking chromaticism (which would have shocked Mozart's contemporaries), and a general distaste for any lyrical feeling. The last of these is obviously a matter of individual preference, but listeners should know what they're getting into. Approach with caution.

Tracklist:

01 - Piano Concerto No.19 in F major, K 459 - I. Allegro
02 - Piano Concerto No.19 in F major, K 459 - II. Allegretto
03 - Piano Concerto No.19 in F major, K 459 - III. Allegro assai
04 - Piano Concerto No.23 in A major, K 488 - I. Allegro
05 - Piano Concerto No.23 in A major, K 488 - II. Adagio
06 - Piano Concerto No.23 in A major, K 488 - III. Allegro assai

Recorded in December 2011 at the Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal, Cologne, Germany.

Musicians:
Ronald Brautigam - fortepiano (by Paul McNulty 2011, after an instrument by Walter & Sohn, ca. 1802)
Die Kölner Akademie - conducted by Michael Alexander Willens.


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