The rather mystifying MM 1785 and Mozart Momentum titles of this double album by pianist Leif Ove Andsnes don't really mean much, other than that the album involves music exclusively from the year 1785. (An "MM 1786" release is on the way.) That was a year when Mozart simultaneously learned the knack of appealing to Viennese audiences and also began to alienate them by delving into more arcane realms. Andsnes offers three piano concertos, plus the Piano Quartet in G minor, K. 478, the Fantasia in C minor, K. 475 (played by ...
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The rather mystifying MM 1785 and Mozart Momentum titles of this double album by pianist Leif Ove Andsnes don't really mean much, other than that the album involves music exclusively from the year 1785. (An "MM 1786" release is on the way.) That was a year when Mozart simultaneously learned the knack of appealing to Viennese audiences and also began to alienate them by delving into more arcane realms. Andsnes offers three piano concertos, plus the Piano Quartet in G minor, K. 478, the Fantasia in C minor, K. 475 (played by itself, not attached to the usual Piano Sonata in C minor, K. 457), and the Masonic Funeral Music for orchestra, K. 477. Andsnes plays and conducts the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, which was socially distanced during the coronavirus pandemic. That may have been the reason for a certain lack of focus in the three piano concertos, although there are plenty of elegant turns from Andsnes. Recorded in Berlin's Philharmonie Concert Hall, the orchestra sounds larger than it actually is, and...
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