For her fifth live recording of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's piano concertos with the Cleveland Orchestra, Mitsuko Uchida presents the Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K 453, and the Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K 503, a delightful pairing that reflects her previous albums in this critically acclaimed series on Decca. Conducting from the keyboard, Uchida plays a modern Steinway in a conventional manner without any nods to period practices, though her refinement and elegance go a long way to make up for the lack of ...
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For her fifth live recording of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's piano concertos with the Cleveland Orchestra, Mitsuko Uchida presents the Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K 453, and the Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K 503, a delightful pairing that reflects her previous albums in this critically acclaimed series on Decca. Conducting from the keyboard, Uchida plays a modern Steinway in a conventional manner without any nods to period practices, though her refinement and elegance go a long way to make up for the lack of historically informed details. Instead, Uchida has developed her own approach to Mozart, which allows for personal interaction with the music and a degree of spontaneity with the orchestra that involves playfulness and expansive lyricism. Uchida's cycle with Jeffrey Tate and the English Chamber Orchestra on Philips established her as a leading interpreter of the concertos in the 1980s and 1990s, but these later offerings have the feeling of revisiting old favorites, rather than reassessing...
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