Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Piano Concerto No.15 in B flat major, K450 (1784)
Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor, K466 (1785)
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (piano)
Sinfonieorchester des Süddeutschen Rundfunks/Anton von Bavier
rec. 11 July 1956, Ludwigsburg Festival
SWR Classic SWR19129CD [53]
These are well-known examples of Michelangeli’s art, first released on ICA Classics (ICAC5103) in which form they were reviewed here by Ralph Moore a decade ago. Here they are again, released by SWR and using the original SWR tapes, on the principle of what-goes-around-comes-around. In terms of classical music this generally means labels let ten years go by and then release their own version.
I’m happy to endorse RM’s view on these concertos. They were made when Michelangeli was at his most communicative and enshrine numerous examples of his ripe chording and his athletic treble playing. True, the mono sound though good for the time is still rather boxy – I’ve not heard the ICA Classics transfer – and Michelangeli’s piano tone, at least as caught by the microphones, is a touch clangy, but this is largely incidental. This is a two-concerto live festival performance, after all, and you accept the warts.
K450 is played with tremendous reserves of brio and character, not least its first movement cadenza, and though there’s distortion during Michelangeli’s first entry in the Andante it passes quickly, allowing one to savour his direct, masculine playing. The finale is drolly dispatched and whilst the mono recording inevitably limits orchestral response, it’s clear that there’s a solid rapport between soloist and conductor, Anton von Bavier, as SWR has it, or Antoine de Bavier as ICA has it. As Beecham famously said to Thibaud: ‘Jacques, take your pick.’
Michelangeli plays K466 especially well. There are a number of other surviving performances, such as the Stuttgart one from 1967 on Music & Arts, but I don’t think it’s superior to this one. Here we have a full reservoir of Michelangeli’s talents to encounter, his hands finely balanced, runs elegantly insouciant. There are some excusable orchestral infelicities – the wind tuning in the slow movement in particular – but the communicative esprit can’t be denied. In the finale Michelangeli’s bass is strongly defined and he avoids any temptation to fashion porcelain sonorities. On the contrary, this is vivid, commanding pianism.
So, it’s welcome back to this Mozartian brace and if you missed the earlier incarnation you can buy this one secure in the knowledge that it enshrines Michelangeli at his most engaging, lively and human.
Jonathan Woolf
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