Search - Mozart, Keith Jarrett, Davies :: Piano Concertos

Fresh thoughts on Mozart

Bill Parker | Saint Paul, MN United States | 02/18/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The German label ECM offers some provoking thoughts on Mozart's music, especially his piano concertos, on a double album featuring pianist Keith Jarrett, with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. I almost said "jazz pianist" Keith Jarrett, for that is what he was invariably called for years until he began to explore the classics out in the open. His best-known previous classical recording was Bach's Goldberg Variations in which he exhibited some similarities to the legendary Glenn Gould in terms of digital clarity and freedom of expression. Critics were divided over whether this was a welcome return to a style once considered utterly unique, or a reprehensible form of imitation.Now Jarrett has brought his clean, no-nonsense sound to Mozart, who can probably survive it just as well as Bach. A caution up front: if you think a jazz artist playing classical means he's "jazzing it up," forget about it. But neither is he trying to be somebody entirely different just to prove he's not "inferior." I don't hear anything defensive in Jarrett's approach to this music. Neither is he trying to veer wildly from the norms of Mozart interpretation just to be cute. He seems to have thought this music through by the lights of a professional musician, not with some extra-musical agenda in mind. He deserves to be given the respect due a master who on this occasion happens to be playing the music of a dead white composer instead of a living black one. Whatever you think of his artistry, don't judge him by preconceptions or stereotypes.

The album offers three of Mozart's greatest piano concertos, Nos. 21 (whose slow movement was so famously used in the film Elvira Madigan), 23, and 27. As a bonus, the set includes one of Mozart's greatest symphonies, No. 40 in G Minor, and the Masonic Funeral Music, K.477-not the most cheerful piece, naturally, but a shatteringly moving one, especially considering its brevity (under six minutes)."