Crisp performance
Michel Dalberto plays Mozart Piano Concertos, reviewed by PATRIC STANDFORD
RCA 74321 844792
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Not just another disc of Mozart concertos, but one that has the distinction of not only lovely crisp performance, balance and warmth, but also features noteworthy cadenzas chosen by its soloist, one of Europe's most artistically sensitive and perceptive pianists.
Dalberto, who now directs the Clara Haskil Competition that precipitated him to wide recognition in 1975, has chosen to include a cadenza by Alfred Brendel in the first movement of the D minor concerto (No 20) which matches superbly Mozart's troubled chromatic style
[listen -- track 1, 10:57-12:36]
and in the third movement plays one by Edwin Fischer, Brendel's great mentor. Indeed these performances are a display of pianist-composer invention.
In the first movement of the E-flat concerto, Dalberto brings into the light the remarkable cadenza by Busoni in which he says 'the grandiose, virtuoso and unpredictable vein of the music is recaptured to the fullest'
[listen -- track 4, 10:55-13:03]
-- the sort of thing the composer would provide for a concerto he so much admired. The third movement of this concerto does, I believe, leave much to be filled in by the creative interpreter, and here Dalberto includes the embellishments perfectly created by Wanda Landowska to make the sort of operatic interchange that Mozart must certainly have added in his own performances -- and in the final cadenza there is even a quote from Don Giovanni included in the cadenza by Nikita Magaloff.
There are two short transitional passages needed as the final rondo theme reappears, and these are by Paul Badura-Skoda in a perfectly fitting style. However, without this information I doubt that many listeners would notice anything to disturb the neat performance (the American conductor John Nelson to be praised) of two works that never lose their power to amaze.
Copyright © 21 January 2006
Patric Standford, Wakefield UK
Mozart / Dalberto / Nelson: Concertos for piano and Orchestra
74321 844792 DDD Stereo FIRST RELEASE 69' 2001 BMG France
Michel Dalberto, piano; Ensemble Orchestral de Paris; John Nelson, conductor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Concerto for piano and orchestra No 20 in D minor K466 (Allegro; Romance; Allegro assai); Concerto for piano and orchestra No 22 in E flat major K482 (Allegro; Andante; Allegro - Andantino cantabile - Primo); Fantasy in D minor K397 (Andante - Adagio - Presto - Allegretto) |
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JOHN NELSON CONDUCTS THE BERLIOZ TE DEUM
MICHEL DALBERTO
ENSEMBLE ORCHESTRAL DE PARIS
JOHN NELSON
CLARA HASKIL INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION
Record Box is Music & Vision's
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