Album DescriptionThe piano concertos of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) stand as a lonely and magnificent peak in the history of music. Every one of his concertos is unique, a foray on unexplored musical territory pressing forward to new understandings of form and content. Concerto No. 20 is one of the few Mozart concerti in a minor key and, as such, it especially appealed to the later generation of Romantics. It was often played by Beethoven, who composed the cadenzas used on this recording, as Mozart did not leave us any of his own. Concerto No. 18 is one of six that Mozart composed in 1784. It was written for the blind pianist Maria Theresia Paradis, whom he had met in Salzburg in 1783. Matthias Kirschnereit is one of the leading German pianists of his generation. His international solo career has taken him to five continents and he has toured the U.S. He has very close links to the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, with whom he is recording Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's collected piano concertos for Arte Nova. Kirschnereit's fascination with Mozart's piano concertos dates back to his earliest youth. His first public appearance with an orchestra, at the age of twelve, was with a movement from a Mozart concerto.