Search - Monique de la Bruchollerie :: Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 23 [Japan]

The best of the best

Eloi | Ely, NV USA | 09/07/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What a treat! For years, all I had was a cassette tape of this extraordinary recording made by Monique de la Bruchollerie--Alfred Cortot's favorite student--in the early 1950's before her death in a car crash.



Money was rolling in from the subscription concerts, and Mozart was at the top of his game when he wrote and performed these two concertos. My fave is K 488, and Bruchollerie plays the only cadenza Mozart ever wrote out, so it's 100% Mozart. After a sunny first movement, there's a breath of cold air and then the rollicking finale.



The D-minor concerto is more famous. De la Bruchollerie plays a slightly truncated version of the Beethoven cadenza with plenty of fire. Many assume that writing out cadenzas was contract work, and there's no record of Beethoven's actually performing the concerto in public. But anyone who listens to the middle section of the last movement of Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto can hear how the best steal from / recycle the best.



I haven't said much about the performance. De la Bruchollerie is precise without being pedantic. There are a couple of ragged orchestral entries, and overall the performance has the spontaneous quality of a live performance. And as a reed man, I can attest that the oboe player in K 466 is totally aware--no muffed entries there!



I'm guessing that it was simple economics in postwar Europe, but the sparse orchestra is exactly what "Historically Informed Performance" would suggest today. Mozart concertos are not the hyperdramatic hero versus orchestra concertos of the 19th century but more like very dramatic chamber music with piano. These performances are perfect examples.



If you're a Mozart lover who has friends saying "Beethoven's great, but Mozart's namby," this recording might change their minds through its power, finesse and joy."