Amazon.com: Decca has gotten around the perennial problem of filling Mozart Piano Concerto CDs by splitting No. 25 between two discs, giving us 155 minutes of Mozart for the price of a single top-line CD. The performances are top-line, too, if you like big-orchestra Mozart. Ashkenazy performs this music in a public, large-auditorium style, without the intimacy or niceties we hear from period instruments or from such pianists as Richard Goode and Mitsuko Uchida. His own cadenzas for three of the concertos are also very extroverted--and, alas, not very imaginative. Also, there are a few moments when the orchestra might have benefited from a firmer hand on the tiller than the pianist-conductor can provide. Overall, though, these are dramatic, involving Mozart performances, even if their style belongs more to the past than to the present. --Leslie Gerber
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Excellent and inexpensive
These are fabulous performances that contain all the richness, depth, and emotional movement of Mozart's best (or, one could say, most famous) piano concertos. Especially great are the performances of ... Read More
Rating: - Satisfying, "old-school" Mozart
Vladimir Ashkenazy's complete cycle of Mozart piano concertos was originally issued in the late 70s-early 80s, and holds up well, on the evidence of this bargain-priced 2-CD set of five of the most famous ... Read More
Rating: - Pretty Good
I grew up listening to Rudolph Serkin play these pieces. He will always be the gold standard on Mozart piano concertos as far as I'm concerned. I gave this album 3 stars instead of 4 solely for Ashkenazy's ... Read More
Rating: - EXCELLENT SELECTION AND INTERPRETATIONS
I received this 2 cd set as a gift and have played it many times - especially the slow movements which are so ethereal and soul-wrenching - and notably Vladimir Ashkenazy's interpretations of the concertos ... Read More
Rating: - Ashkenazy on a Classical era adventure...
Hi to All
I am a very conservative fan of Mozart. I always buy one work from different performers to find the best for my soul...If the topic is Mozart I examine more carefully...I was very worried ... Read More
- Excellent and inexpensive
- Pretty Good
- EXCELLENT SELECTION AND INTERPRETATIONS