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| Teldec/Conifer digital (Full price) (CD) ZK8 42970. From AZ642970 (4/85). |
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| Decca digital (Full price) (LP) 411 810-1DH (Cassette) 411 810-4DH (CD) 411 810-2DH. |
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| Concerto No. 23—selected comparisons |
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| Philh, Ashkenazy (3/83) 400 087-2DH |
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| ECO, Perahia (1/86) MK39064 |
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| Concerto No. 25—selected comparisons |
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| ECO, Perahia (6/82) IM37267 |
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| Serkin, LSO, Abbado (5/84) 410 989-1GH (5/84) 410 989-2GH |
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| Concerto No. 26—selected comparison |
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| ECO, Perahia (10/84) IM39224 (11/85) MK39224 |
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Ashkenazy's coupling, announced last year, is a generous one, aptly bringing together consecutive works which provide an unusually strong contrast: K503 the longest and weightiest of the great sequence of masterpieces that he wrote for his own concerts in Vienna, K537 mislabelled Coronation and left on one side when Mozart's Lenten concerts were abandoned. Ashkenazy's readings of both works are characteristically fresh and clear, helped by a superb full recording, which more than most rivals gets the woodwind balance right with plenty of air round the sound. These are both performances to match his achievement in the others of the series, rather plainer in Mozart style than the comparative versions listed, not just in the absence of extra ornamentation even in slow movements, but in manner generally. What gives the readings sparkle and charm none the less is not the just extraordinary clarity of Ashkenazy's articulation, with scales and passagework rippling evenly, but the fine rhythmic point. With speeds unerringly chosen these are satisfying direct readings of both concertos, guaranteed to satisfy any Mozartian.
The obverse of these positive qualities is that in direct comparison with Perahia (CBS), whose reading is revelatory and Serkin (DG), and to a lesser extent Gulda too, they might be thought to lack an element of idividuality, the macig which can make a phrase or eve a bar of simple passagework sound breathtakingly new. Generally I have been rather disappointed with the Serkin Mozart series for DG—largely a question of remembering his earlier Mozart recordings—but K503, weighty and slow in the outer movements, is deeply satisfying, a fine example of his art. I find even more magic in Perahia's reading, though some may find the pointing too detailed for so strong and forthright a work, giving it too much charm. I certainly do not think so, and look forward to hearing the CD version.
Where the general view, broadly adopted by Ashkenazy, is that it is a decorative piece, marking a falling-off from the high water-mark of K503 and its predecessors, Perahia reminds us that like the Prague Symphony it shares its tonic with Don Giovanni, a work whose composition it overlapped. Far more than I had appreciated, Perahia brings out the serious element in the work, and so in a rather different way does Gulda with Harnoncourt as a very positive conductor. Robin Golding, in his view of the Teldec LP, rightly praised Gulda for his stylishness and imagination, though I find Harnoncourt's underlining of the military rhythms in the first movement a little too aggressive. K488 is on the heavy side in the first movement, but with first-rate Teldec sound freshened in this CD transfer, that too brings a memorable reading. In that earlier work I still prefer both Perahia and Ashkenazy. Ashkenazy's new record (like Perahia's of both K503 and K537) is graced by cadenzas of his own, each on the long side in the first movement, but crisply and stylishly argued.
EG