English label Onyx has begun to earn a reputation for adventurous programming over its young life. The combination of Mozart piano concertos heard here is an extremely common one, but this modern-instrument performance (there is not even a nod in the direction of historical performance) nevertheless could qualify as adventurous. One novel point is that soloist Pascal Rogé is known as a specialist in the music of Debussy and his contemporaries, not in Mozart. Does he make Mozart sound like Debussy? Yes, but that's not ...
Read More
English label Onyx has begun to earn a reputation for adventurous programming over its young life. The combination of Mozart piano concertos heard here is an extremely common one, but this modern-instrument performance (there is not even a nod in the direction of historical performance) nevertheless could qualify as adventurous. One novel point is that soloist Pascal Rogé is known as a specialist in the music of Debussy and his contemporaries, not in Mozart. Does he make Mozart sound like Debussy? Yes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing as he applies the technique here. Rogé offers a wide, subtly shaded, even impressionistic palette of tones and attacks, but he harnesses them to the clear, ambitious classical architecture of these concertos. Consider the opening of the Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, where the piano's unprecedented appearance in the music's first consequent phrase must have caused considerable shock to Mozart's first hearers. The usual way is to take this passage...
Read Less
