Ronald Brautigam, Kölner Akademie & Michael Alexander Willens - Weber: Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra (2021) [24/96]

Carl Maria von Weber wrote music that has been admired by composers as diverse as Schumann, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky. But in his lifetime he was also recognised as one of the finest pianists of the period, with an exceptional technique and a brilliant gift for improvisation. Especially during the 1810s he toured extensively, and like other composer-pianists he wrote works to use as his personal calling cards, among them the two piano concertos recorded here. They were both composed in 1811-12, but while the First Concerto takes Mozart's concertos as its model, Piano Concerto No. 2 looks towards Beethoven. This change of direction was probably influenced by the fact that Weber had acquired a score of Beethoven's recently published Emperor Concerto. In any case there are some striking similarities between his concerto and Beethoven's: the use of identical keys, and the inclusion of a slow, subtly orchestrated Adagio and a closing playful rondo in 6/8. Following highly acclaimed recordings of the complete concertos by Mozart and Beethoven as well as Mendelssohn, this disc brings the team of Ronald Brautigam and Kölner Akademie to the very crossroads of Classicism and Romanticism.

Tracklist:
01. Weber: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 11, J. 98: I. Allegro
02. Weber: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 11, J. 98: II. Adagio
03. Weber: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 11, J. 98: III. Finale. Presto
04. Weber: Piano Concerto No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 32, J. 155: I. Allegro maestoso
05. Weber: Piano Concerto No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 32, J. 155: II. Adagio
06. Weber: Piano Concerto No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 32, J. 155: III. Rondo. Presto
07. Weber: Konzertstück in F Minor, Op. 79, J. 282: Larghetto affettuoso
08. Weber: Konzertstück in F Minor, Op. 79, J. 282: Allegro passionato
09. Weber: Konzertstück in F Minor, Op. 79, J. 282: Adagio
10. Weber: Konzertstück in F Minor, Op. 79, J. 282: Tempo di marcia
11. Weber: Konzertstück in F Minor, Op. 79, J. 282: Più mosso


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