Various American orchestras have begun issuing selected live performances on compact disc, but this British release represents something slightly different: an effort not by an orchestra but by a venue, the Sage Gateshead concert hall in Newcastle upon Tyne, to inscribe and publicize the music heard therein. The initial results are not just encouraging but spectacular. Pianist Imogen Cooper, directing the Northern Sinfonia from the keyboard, delivers two of the subtlest and loveliest Mozart concerto performances heard ...
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Various American orchestras have begun issuing selected live performances on compact disc, but this British release represents something slightly different: an effort not by an orchestra but by a venue, the Sage Gateshead concert hall in Newcastle upon Tyne, to inscribe and publicize the music heard therein. The initial results are not just encouraging but spectacular. Pianist Imogen Cooper, directing the Northern Sinfonia from the keyboard, delivers two of the subtlest and loveliest Mozart concerto performances heard anywhere in years. Cooper is sensitive and original in her conceptions of the solo parts; she accomplishes the trick of making the slow movement of the Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488, sound deeply sad without turning it into Chopin, for example. But it is really her control over the orchestra that makes these performances stand out. Mozart's woodwind lines shine through the texture in their own individual colors, and articulation is managed in such a way as to sharpen the phrase...
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