Good, but not better than her earlier versions
Paul S. Rottenberg | Ft. Lauderdale, FL | 10/08/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Decca has just released this disc of Mitsuko Ucida's excellent readings of Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos. 23 and 24 with The Cleveland Orchestra, but it doesn't surpass Uchida's earlier accounts from the 1980s conducted by Jeffrey Tate, available on Phillips. Perhaps it's because she takes the roles of both soloist and conductor in this new release, but I see no real improvement or advance in either execution or insights into the music here.
One example of this is in the first movement cadenza of the c minor concerto. Uchida's earlier version's cadenza is a minor masterpiece of Mozart-style piano writing and playing, and is quite exciting, but her new cadenza for the same movement is really not on the same level. It's certainly interesting, but it doesn't do anything as exciting as the earlier one. Perhaps it's a touch more Romantic, and so is the entire performance, with a much larger ensemble than either Tate, with the English Chamber Orch., or the great George Szell's classic account on Sony with Robert Cassadesues, which lists the orchestra as consisting of "members of The Cleveland Orchestra." This is massive and monumental Mozart on a large scale rather than intimate and classical. The playing (especially of the winds) is, naturally, excellent, but the size of the band is almost too big for this piece, and I find the playing a bit too smoothed over (Romantic) for Mozart. Tate got the accents better in his more striking realization for Uchida's earlier version.
There is also very fine wind playing here in the episodes of the slow movement (as there is in their earlier recording with Szell)and the chamber music textures deliver some wonderful give and take between instrumental choirs (winds and strings) and between winds and piano. This slow rondo gets an excellent performance here, but again, Uchida is up against some stiff competetion, including her own earlier version. This new one is, once more, very good, but it doesn't surpass the 1980s recording (or those of other artists, such as Cassadesus, Brendel, et al.)
The finale is also very well done, and I like Uchida's decision to cut back the strings to chamber proportions in the episodes between strings and winds, but again, I can't say this is an advance over any earlier performance. Adding this up, we have a very fine performance (with a somewhat Romantic view of the first movement)which just misses great.
Much the same can be said for the new performance of the A major concerto. It should bounce along with a bit more sprightliness and should present an 18th century pathos in the slow movement, which Uchida's earlier account certainly does. Her new version is perhaps too Romanticized in its smoother approach. I like the finale, here, but it doesn't add anything new to our understanding of this etherial music.
The tempos of both works are only slightly slower in these new performances (the A major's slow mvt. is slightly faster, but seems a bit slower), but the overall time somehow seems slower, at least in the c minor work.
I love Mitsuko Uchida, but I can't say this disc adds anything new to her discography. She's developing as a conductor, but maybe this music really requires a seperate conductor to do it full justice. Sound is, of course, excellent. Full and rich. Detailed and well balanced."
Sombre, elegant and thoughtful
Ralph Moore | Bishop's Stortford, UK | 10/28/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I first found myself in complete agreement with the previous reviewer's balanced and intelligent assessment but subsequent listenings to this interesting and subtle disc have left me unsure. It is certainly not as light or playful as her earlier Philips versions and the emphasis in both concertos here is often more upon sombre introspection, yet Uchida has something profound and even slightly disturbing to say about this music, based on long acquaintance and reflection. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that she has (unbelievably) now entered her seventh decade of life. Speeds are measured and momentary, deliberate hesitations in the series of light fifth interval leaps following the entry of the piano in the opening of K491 underline the kind of metaphysical doubt pervading her interpretation. Although the "opera buffa" style conclusion to K488 is spritely and Uchida plays with all her customary elegance and charm, and although the piano sings under her delicate touch, an inescapable melancholy colours her every utterance. This is another way to play Mozart; if you require more insouciance and sparkle, look elsewhere, perhaps to Perahia, or even the excellent "Brilliant" bargain set of complete concertos played by Derek Han.
These two concertos are often thought of as a good contrasting pair, ideal for a live concert programme (such as that from which this recording is taken), but Uchida suggests that this that these characterisations are superficial and in particular undermines the supposed geniality of K488, reminding us that they were composed within a few weeks of each other in March 1786, while Mozart was simultaneously working on "The Marriage of Figaro". The sublime Adagio of K488 is almost unbearable in its poignancy and recalls the emotional world of "Porgi amor" and "Dove sono"; similarly the "Larghetto" of K491, while offering more consolation, is always close to tears, especially in Uchida's conception. She both plays and directs from the keyboard, securing beautiful playing from a reduced Cleveland Orchestra, especially in the woodwind (despite a little blooper from the clarinets at 30', track 2). You would barely know that this recording was taken from two live performances; audience intrusion is absolutely minimal and the sound unimpeachable.
This is, then, in a sense, a more "Romantic" account of these masterpieces but any sense of indulgence is counteracted by the poised classicism of Uchida's touch and the restraint of the orchestral accompaniment, despite its coming from a fairly big band. I believe that I shall find myself returning to them more often than I at first thought.
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Uchida's Playing Of Mozart Still Conveys Inner Wisdom And Br
Raymond Vacchino | Toronto, ON. Canada | 01/07/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This newly released recording of Mitsuko Uchida revisiting Mozart's Piano Concertos No.23, K.488 in A; and No.24, K.491 in C minor; is a challenge for anyone to write a review about! The two reviews before my own only proves this point by highlighting the fact that trying to compare differences between Uchida's Phillips disc, and this recent Decca version is indeed a grim task in "splitting hairs!"
Mozart's concerto writing reaches a climax in the Piano Concerto in C minor, K.491 (1786).
Uchida, now somewhat older and all the wiser handles the virtuosic demands this kind of music-making imposes with exceptional stylistic command and supreme concentration throughout. In K.491 performed before K.488,is polished as one may expect it to be, but Uchida further renders an allure and spontaneity that are absolute joy. As well, details of scoring in the orchestral expositions of the first movements rarely receive such interest in voicing and characterised definition. In a Mozart concerto one feels that the pianist behaves like a character in an opera. This comes from a dramatization between soloist and orchestra. We wait for the entry of the soloist from the beginning of the orchestral Exposition.
Uchida does not let us down in this respect either. Simply judge her first entry in this concerto's solo theme: there is no other more difficult to manage. Uchida provides the range, the control and the rhetoric necessary to pull it off. Another difficult challenge is overcome by Uchida in this first movement by providing us with an impressive cadenza. Mozart is always demanding, not physically, but in concentrating to find the right character and atmosphere. It becomes an outstanding occurrence of this movement, to be returned to again and again. Uchida studied Mozart's operas which provides her with the ability to intensify the inner musical clues when interpreting his cadenzas.
("Twenty-one Mozart cadenzas quote one theme, twelve quote two themes, and two quote three themes.") A bit of trivia.
The slow movements are especially expressive. In the Larghetto of No.24,Uchida allows her opening to unfold at an ideal tempo giving us the impression of walking while she "speaks" to us from a possible scene of a tragic opera. This is immediately followed by the bubbling finale characterising pure opera buffa, and energized by Uchida's spirited finger work and forward impetus.
Uchida is equally responsive to the radiant, wistful, entry, and within the Adagio, elegiac lyricism of K.488 in A. Once more she illuminates, vividly, affectionately, yet with no hint of sentimentality, the music's changing moods and colours while maintaining a strong melodic flow. As the main theme of the Adagio returns, after the serenading type grace of the A major episode beautifully realised here by Uchida, she enhances its pathos with delicately expressive embellishments. After this, Uchida maintains an airborne finale keeping elegance and animal spirits in ideal balance.
The vast range of styles, emotions, and forms that these two concertos encompass are evocatively celebrated in Uchida's performances, and admirably captured in civilized collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra.
What may well be the most important factor is that Mozart brings to life, specific characters from his operas. No other composer ever showed this type of relationship so clearly and Uchida exemplifies this characteristic with amazing expressive intensity.
Overall, Uchida constantly reminds us that the best interpreters do not impose but find a way of letting the music 'speak' through them.
Author: Raymond Vacchino M.Mus. Classical Music Critic
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