Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Carlos Prieto :: Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 14, 23 and 25

Great performer with class and big heart

David S. Hall | Brookfield, Illinois USA | 08/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have just purchased this disc, because my wife and I recently heard Mr. Osorio at Ravinina festival in Chicago (7/30/06), playing Mozart's 14th and 23rd piano concertos. It was an unforgetable evening, primarily because we were able to sit so close to this man's masterful playing (we were 2nd row center). Mr. Osorio exudes class and an old world shyness and humility. I had never heard the 14th concerto until this night, so that was a treat. However, I had heard many recordings of the 23rd and have always enjoyed it. The adagio is one of Mozart's most deepest, in my humble opinion, and Mr. Osorio played it so beautifully, it was very difficult to hold back the tears for both myself and my wife. I would highly recommend this recording, but would even more recommend that you hear this man play live... and sit close!"

Elegant Mozart in Live Performances

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 01/31/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jorge Federico Osorio is a Mexican pianist whose elegant playing has been in evidence in previous releases of music by Hispanic composers as well as a number of Brahms works, including the Second Piano Concerto and the violin sonatas with violinist Elmar Oliveira. Here he plays three of Mozart's most familiar concerti with what appears to be an ad hoc orchestra called the Mozart-Haydn Festival Orchestra, associated with a festival that takes place annually in Mexico City. The orchestra is led by the fine young Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto (who, by the way, had been slated to be the new music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic prior to Hurricane Katrina; one wonders what will happen with that appointment). The dates of these live performances are not given but from the excellent sound one assumes they were given in recent years.



Osorio's playing is characterized by limpid clarity, musicianly phrasing and an ability to make coherent formal statements in these classically structured works. The recorded sound of the piano is a bit forward, but one can also generally hear everything that happens in the orchestra. The winds in particular are fine, but that bustling bassoon figure, so engaging when emphasized, in the final movement of the 23rd Concerto in A Major, K.488, gets a bit buried by the strings. The two clarinets in the same concerto (one of only three Mozart piano concertos that use clarinets) are simply marvelous. This wonderful concerto was written at about the same time as Marriage of Figaro and one can hear that. The middle movement in F sharp minor partakes of the same sort of delicate sadness as the Countess's 'Porgi amor.' Osorio plays the middle movement gorgeously and he is given a silken pillow of orchestral sound.



The other concerti are given equally fine performances. Aside from occasional audience noise and a few minor instrumental bobbles in the orchestra (plus a sometimes brash overeagerness) these are treasurable performances.



If you don't know the playing of Osorio, you are in for a treat.



Scott Morrison"

Perfect

G. R. Dixon | Mesa, AZ USA | 01/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The CD is of course Mozart. Enough said on that score? Add to that Jorge Osorio's keyboard virtuosity and the bar is raised to new heights. Jorge's timing is so perfect that it must have been a joy for Carlos Prieto to conduct. I found myself tapping my finger during the first concerto (#25) and marveling that Jorge was exactly where he should be every tap, no matter how challenging the material. Top this with the recording expertise of ARTEK (the fidelity is superb) and you truly end up with a winner. Would that Mozart were still alive to hear his work played this flawlessly by a modern symphony orchestra, accompanied by Osorio's magic hands. I enthusiastically recommend this recording be included on every Amadeus-lover's shelf."