COMPOSERS: Mozart
LABELS: Archiv
WORKS: Piano Concerto No. 14 in E flat, K449; Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K488; Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K491
PERFORMER: Malcolm Bilson (fortepiano); English Baroque Soloists/John Eliot Gardiner
CATALOGUE NO: 447 295-2 DDD (1984-89)
Bilson’s Archiv survey of the Mozart concertos remains pre-eminent among authentic accounts of these works. His reading of the tempestuous K491 in C minor forms the central panel of this sublimely compelling and erudite tryptych, framed by K488 in A, and the E flat concerto, K449. Immaculately played and recorded, you’ll encounter no finer period performances than these.
Maria-João Pires, a Mozartian of proven eminence, receives inept support from the Gulbenkian Orchestra under Guschlbauer in K467, K537, and the Rondo, K386. Admirable pianism, but Erato’s digital transfers are feverishly brilliant, and thus these mid-Seventies recordings may be confidently overlooked. Michael Jameson