Track Listing

1. Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466: Allegro
2. Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466: Romance
3. Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466: Allegro assai
4. Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, K. 459: Allegro
5. Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, K. 459: Allegretto
6. Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, K. 459: Allegro assai
7. Concerto for 2 pianos & orchestra in E flat major ('Concerto No. 10'), K. 365 (K. 316a): Allegro
8. Concerto for 2 pianos & orchestra in E flat major ('Concerto No. 10'), K. 365 (K. 316a): Andante
9. Concerto for 2 pianos & orchestra in E flat major ('Concerto No. 10'), K. 365 (K. 316a): Rondeau: Allegro

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135571 in Music
• Released on: 1999-07-06
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com essential recording
These are glorious performances of three very different piano concerti by Mozart. No. 19 (K. 459) is a handsome showpiece, filled with dramatic turns for the soloist; No. 10 (K. 365) for two pianos is simply lovely; and No. 20 (K. 466) is a deeply felt, intricately woven, brooding, but finally exultant masterpiece. Martha Argerich tears into No. 20's darkness with great fury, abetted by Rabinovitch's tense, turmoil-filled accompaniment; she plays Beethoven's appropriately heavy cadenzas with brilliance, and her headlong blaze into the final movement is breathtaking. Rabinovitch plays and leads No. 19 with charm and virtuosity. And the two pianists zip through K. 365 as if it were a delicious ice-cream sundae, which, frankly, it is. A terrific disc, highly recommended. --Robert Levine

Customer Reviews

A new way with Mozart
This disc is most important in the Mozart catalog, despite the dismissive comments from some poorly-informed listeners here. In an age where genteel Mozart dominates, these bold, masculine recordings are a new way of looking at old relics, and quite frankly probably closer to the way Wolfie intended. Over the centuries Mozart has become the man-child in most interpretors' hands (see the chapter "The Myth of the Eternal Child" in Solomon's biography, _Mozart, A Life_) and this recording makes one finally able to imagine the Mozart who had stubble, who was a man and not a boy. The comment that Argerich can scarcely be expected to negotiate this music after her bold "recent" Rachmaninoff 3rd recording should just be ignored: the Rach 3 disc is not recent but from 1983, and she no longer plays the Rach in her repertoire, and it was clearly far from her mind when she made these recordings. (Her style in the two discs bear no more than a superficial relation.) But she does attack all music with force and conviction, and is not for the faint-hearted. She challenges conventions...I thought this is what artists (like Mozart himself) were supposed to do.

Splendid No. 20
Argerich offers a refreshing take on Mozart's D Minor Concerto, one of the composer's most famous among his 27 in this genre. Her articulation is incisive, and the unfolding of the drama free of sentimentality. For those who cannot associate Argerich with Mozart, I would just say that you owe it to yourself to give this CD a try. Some "canon" interpreters can go to the extreme in sculpting the beauty of Mozart so pure and ethereal as to rob away the wider range of emotions embodied in his music; this D Minor Concerto is a good example.

Robinovitch's F Major No. 19 pales in comparison. The first of the two cadenzas in the last movement is truly strange--very uncharacteristic of Mozart--not sure if it was composed by Robinovitch himself. The CD redeems itself with a fine performance of the Concerto for Two Pianos.

Classic Argerich
When one listens to Argerich, one must expect the extraordinary. Not for her is the run of the mill performance which conventional wisdom associates with the "correct" style. She is here to offer gems of ideas of how a composer's work can be intepreted. Her rendition of the D minor Concerto is classic Argerich. Her tone colour (eg.with brlliant use of the una corda), "fantasique" use of rubato and how she makes the music soar make one realise how exciting Mozart music can be. I would rank her D minor rendition with Clara Haskil's (listen to how she ends her cadenza in the 1st movt; the almost unbearable tension and well-gradated crescendo; ditto for Haskil). Different in their own ways, but similar in how they each imprint their individualism in the work. My only problem was with the 1st movt of the F maj. The approach is affected, and I cannot quite understand some of the things she does (eg. tempo rubato at some points) which seem to be idiosyncracies. Her approach seems to be too robust for something so dainty. I would go for Alicia De Larocha's 1st movt for her transparency and simplicity. But Argerich's 2nd movt and 3rd are classic, esp her statement of the 1st subject of the 3rd movt after the first "small" cadenza: the deliberateness in which she reiterates the theme after that, seems almost as if she has not got over her musing in the cadenza. Strongly recommended for students and music lover who want something that goes beyond the jaded renditions of Mozart, and of course for Argerich fans, which I count myself as one.