This CD, one of a series with pianist Imogen Cooper performing and leading Britain's Northern Sinfonia in Mozart piano concertos, is released jointly by the Avie label and the Sage Gateshead concert hall in North East England. Ensembles often release their own CDs by now; for a venue to do so is rarer, but the results here promise well for similar enterprises. Also unusual are the credits: Cooper is listed as pianist and director, and Bradley Creswick as leader/co-director. How this worked out in practice remains ...
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This CD, one of a series with pianist Imogen Cooper performing and leading Britain's Northern Sinfonia in Mozart piano concertos, is released jointly by the Avie label and the Sage Gateshead concert hall in North East England. Ensembles often release their own CDs by now; for a venue to do so is rarer, but the results here promise well for similar enterprises. Also unusual are the credits: Cooper is listed as pianist and director, and Bradley Creswick as leader/co-director. How this worked out in practice remains unaddressed. However they did it, this is a standout pair of Mozart concerto performances in a British field crowded with Mozart discs featuring modern instruments and conventional symphony orchestras. It seems that Cooper was in charge of the overall conception of the music, for the coordination between piano and orchestra is extraordinary. The orchestral expositions are convincing in both global and local structure, with a great deal of detail revealed in the inner lines, and Cooper's...
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