Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Piano Concerto No 20 in D minor, K466 (1785)
Piano Concerto No 23 in A, K488 (1786)
Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K546 (1788)
Charles Richard-Hamelin (piano), Les Violons du Roy / Jonathan Cohen
Cadenzas: K466 first and third movements by Richard-Hamelin, K488 first movement by Mozart
rec. 2022, Raoul-Jobin Hall, Palais Montcalm, Québec, Canada
Analekta AN29026 [62]
Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 20 is his most dramatic. Jonathan Cohen and Les Violons du Roy make its soft first theme furtive but restless, then loud tutti sharp and stinging. The second theme (tr. 1, 0:58), as keen in brightness, has restless propulsion. The third, the piano’s entry (2:17), briefly suggests an operatic arioso, Charles Richard-Hamelin a compelling advocate. Through his second initiative, the fourth theme (3:47), violins and woodwind in turn find an F major glee recently unconceivable. Piano returns to the third theme idyllically; orchestra counters with the embers of the first and thereafter periodic swells of violence. Piano tries a more circumspect version of theme 3 (6:05), beguilingly from Richard-Hamelin. The second and fourth themes return with warmer orchestral cladding, a nod at memory in accepted damage limitation. Then the cadenza (10:48): all credit to Richard-Hamelin for creating his own staying, unlike the popular Beethoven’s, within Mozart’s eighteenth-century frame of reference. Based on the fourth theme, it looks at that more abstractly but clothed in counterpoint accepting the first theme focus and layering in the baritone register, quite warmly, the third theme.
My comparison is with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and the Manchester Camerata under Gábor Takács-Nagy (review). The orchestral introduction goes for stronger, arguably excessive, dynamic contrasts to grimmer effect with implacable timpani blasts and more searing tuttis. Bavouzet’s piano and themes introduced seem an idyll of beauty set apart. Beethoven’s cadenza has more pyrotechnics. There’s more emphasis on drama and colour, where Richard-Hamelin and Cohen clarify structure and argument, painstakingly tracing changes in attitude.
The second movement rondo Romance in B flat is a simple, joyous dance. Richard-Hamelin and Cohen give it style, substance, also a light strut, the orchestral contributions appreciably balanced. The first episode (tr. 2, 1:45) is more elaborate and operatic yet still gracious and, as in the first movement, displays coming to terms with a clouded period. The second episode (3:48) is a sharp shock and the recurring forte chords have fitting bite. Its second strain has a gorgeous progression of woodwind chords like an exorcism (4:32-4:44). Richard-Hamelin deliciously decorates the return of the piano rondo solo.
Bavouzet/Takács-Nagy, timing at 8:54 against Richard-Hamelin/Cohen’s 8:12, are more dreamily idyllic, less refreshingly direct. Their second episode is more alarmed but its second strain’s chord progression magic is less apparent.
The finale is about resolving D minor to D major. Richard-Hamelin treats the first theme zestfully; Cohen’s orchestral repeat is more nervily precipitant. The piano’s response with the second theme (tr. 3, 0:56) is mollifying: hints of major mode alternatives and cavalcade of quaver runs, a harbinger for the woodwind take-up of a jolly C major third theme (2:03) which the piano repeats and then starts modifying the first theme, musing enhanced by Richard-Hamelin’s eingang (mini-cadenza from 2:27). The greater tension in the orchestral returning first theme is relaxed through the piano’s interchange with echoing fragments of woodwind solos and attention to exchanges of the second theme. The cadenza proves the climactic resolution. Richard-Hamelin’s (5:22) progresses with a happy transformation of the first theme and wispy allusion to the second within a flurry of notes to reach the third theme and work at last in D major. Richard-Hamelin and Cohen make this ending more logical and expected than any other recording I’ve heard.
Bavouzet/Takács-Nagy play the finale as a virtuoso romp, niftily and lightly articulated. Beethoven’s cadenza is spectacular but only concentrates on the first theme.
Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 23 has the most serene beginning of any. Cohen reveals its laid-back fruitfulness with classical restraint, but how sleek his first violins’ gliding chromatic descents in the gorgeous second theme (tr. 4, 0:58). Richard-Hamelin’s repeat of the first theme adds bubbly buoyancy, but that of the second an emotive richness leading to tutti ardour until a sudden pause and reflective third theme (4:32). This suggests a potential underlying the concerto from the start. Mozart’s cadenza (9:28) begins as a precis of the piano’s glitter and reflection, then anticipates Beethoven in extending its dramatic potential.
Richard-Hamelin’s solo opening of the slow movement is exquisite sorrow in F sharp minor. Strings, flute and clarinet offer aching consolation (tr. 5, 0:51); the piano expands this with ornamentation and scaling tragic heights. The second theme from orchestra and gurgling second clarinet (2:22) is more escapist; the piano responds merrily. When Richard-Hamelin repeats the opening theme, he increases the ornamentation. This distances the emotion, yet he’s sensitive at the soft leap from mezzo G sharp to coloratura D (4:26). Later Richard-Hamelin plays similar bare note leaps poignantly from 5:23. I’d prefer him not returning to ornamental gloss from 6:01 to 6:08.
The rondo finale theme is leaping and energetic, ditto the first episode/second theme (tr. 6, 0:55) but challenged by a woodwind cautionary third theme in the minor (1:34) the piano converts to the major and then adds a fourth theme (2:35) of scamping, child-like enthusiasm. The development arrives with huge piano arpeggiando chord in F sharp minor (3:22) and more woodwind troubled waters. The fifth theme (3:52) is the rescuer on clarinets and flute. Nothing could be bouncier and more contented, but the last song is theme 4’s naivety. A great performance by Richard-Hamelin and Cohen balancing irrepressible energy and total conviviality.
Finally, the Adagio and Fugue in C minor (tr. 7). Mozart’s Fugue for two pianos of 1783 he arranged in 1788 for string quartet or string orchestra, the bass sometimes distributed between cellos and double-basses, notably from 6:11. It sounds better with chamber orchestra here: space to clarify the sometimes-waspish density of the counterpoint. Cohen’s Adagio which Mozart added in 1788 is crisp and incisive in its opening loud tutti fanfare, then the soft, first violins’ melody (tr. 7, 0:14) is mysterious and conveys individual sorrow. Their second response (0:43) brings glints of light and warmth and their third (2:10) has pathos in ghostly chromatic treatment. The Fugue subject (2:54) is brusquer, but the counter-subject with its trill (3:07) infuses civilized elegance. The two approaches conjoin untiringly through Cohen’s admirable clarity.
Michael Greenhalgh
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