Gramophone June 2021
Recording of the Month

Leif Ove Andsnes (piano), Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Matthew Truscott (violin), Joel Hunter (viola), Frank-Michael Guthmann (cello)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K467 'Elvira Madigan'
Mozart: Fantasia in C minor, K475
Mozart: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K478
Mozart: Maurerische Trauermusik (Masonic Funeral Music) in C Minor, K. 477 (K. 479a)
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22 in Es-Dur Major, K. 482

Mozart Momentum 1785 is the first of two releases exploring those especially remarkable years. It includes piano concertos Nos. 20-22, the Piano Quartet in G minor, Masonic Funeral Music, and Fantasia in C minor for solo piano.

“The idea of this project was to explore the diversity of what was going on in Mozart’s creative life at the time – to show that a separation between solo playing, chamber music playing and concerto playing isn’t really relevant,” says Andsnes. “You find that some piano parts in the chamber music are more virtuosic than those in the concertos. It all goes hand in hand.”

Leif Ove Andsnes will embark on this new chapter with a trusted partner: The Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Their previous concerto project – the five piano concertos by Beethoven – produced recordings that won BBC Music Magazine’s Disc of the Year, were nominated for Gramophone Awards and hailed as new benchmarks. “There’s so much more to this partnership than just exceptional playing; there’s a palpable sense of discovery, of living the music,” says Gramophone. The Guardian raved “You’d be hard-put to find a pianist and orchestra better matched.”