Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 27

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Brautigam and Michael Alexander Willens are never exactly slouches when it comes to tempos, and they give a breathlessly agitated account of the opening movement of the D minor Concerto K466...the... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2014, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 4th Nov 2013
Catalogue No: BIS2014
Label: BIS
Series: Brautigam Mozart Concertos
Length: 53 minutes

Building A Library

January 2022

Also Recommended - K466

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466

Work length26:25

$5.05

$9.05

$12.25

Ronald Brautigam
Kölner Akademie
Michael Alexander Willens

I. Allegro

Track length12:02

$2.05

$3.85

$5.25

II. Romance

Track length7:19

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

III. Rondo. Allegro assai

Track length7:04

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K595

Work length27:07

$4.55

$7.75

$10.50

Ronald Brautigam
Kölner Akademie
Michael Alexander Willens

I. Allegro

Track length13:00

$2.05

$3.85

$5.25

II. Larghetto

Track length5:21

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Allegro

Track length8:46

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

About
Reviews
Explore

About

Among the most widely performed of Mozart’s piano concertos for a good half century after its composition in 1785, the Concerto No.20 in D minor still assumes a commanding place in the concert hall. Among its early devotees was Beethoven, who performed the work at a benefit concert for Mozart’s widow in March 1795 and who may well have found much to admire in the work’s brooding opening, characterized by syncopations and later punctuated by more aggressive outbursts; in his informative liner notes, the Mozart scholar John Irving goes so far as to call it ‘Mozart’s grittiest concerto’. Six years after the D minor concerto, in January 1791, the composer completed the Piano Concerto No.27 in B flat major, K595, giving the first performance of it two months later. This was to be his last public appearance as a soloist, and the concerto has sometimes been considered as a work in which the typical sparkle of Mozart’s virtuosity is tempered by resignation, as if the composer were already aware of his imminent demise. Such an interpretation is contradicted by a close study of the autograph manuscript, however: the concerto appears to have been begun two full years before it was completed. Its language is nevertheless more introverted than most of Mozart’s works in the genre: he seems to be aiming for a sublime delicacy of expression rarely attempted elsewhere in his concerto output. These two exceptional works are here performed by Ronald Brautigam and Die Kölner Akademie, on their fifth disc of Mozart’s concertos – an ongoing series which has been described as ‘a lucky break and a true delight’ in the German magazine Piano News.

Reviews

April 2014

Brautigam and Michael Alexander Willens are never exactly slouches when it comes to tempos, and they give a breathlessly agitated account of the opening movement of the D minor Concerto K466...the slow movement of [K595] is decidedly on the flowing side...but the performance on the whole is one that commands attention. Recommended.

February 2014

while I wouldn't always want to hear it like this, Brautigam's performance is certainly refreshing...swiftness is a feature of all the performances here...His articulation is a model of clarity, his passagework powerfully directed.

27th September 2013

Only the terminally averse to the fortepiano and/or smallish orchestras need stay away from any of these recordings...The smallish orchestra and the solo instrument are well balanced so that the former sounds full-bodied; not large-scale, but by no means pint-sized or desiccated...and the soloist shines without being too forward.

Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 27

SACD

Downloads

Contents

Download queue