BaL 27.03.21 - Mozart: Piano Concerto no. 24 in C minor K.491

[Goon525]

And yet, Callmepaul, you were willing to comment on what most classical listeners do and don’t do. Incidentally, Qobuz and Primephonics include access to booklets for most (but admittedly not all) releases. I don’t understand your reference to handheld devices. I use an iPad only for control of Apps, it has no place in the actual streaming/download chain.

[Karafan]

... o you must, Micky, you must. I agree with jayne here : it is wonderful.

And it's an instance where BIS has done what I hoped for - I held off from buying the individual CDs in the hope that a cheaper box wd eventuate - as you and I (forlornly, perhaps?) wish wd be the case with the Spanyi CPE Bach.

So the least that you can do - to encourage BIS in these projects - is to get the Brautigam Mozart...

I was also delighted to find in the complete BIS SACD box they include all the thick, excellent booklets from the individual SACD releases. My only anticipated regret at getting the cycle had been the loss of the booklets with the John Irving essays and the wonderful cover art. I need not have feared! Well worth getting.

[MickyD]

Thanks, Karafan, that's well worth knowing. The Sofronitsky has just arrived in today's post - think I did well to get it for £22. I daresay the Brautigam will be next!

[CallMePaul]

And yet, Callmepaul, you were willing to comment on what most classical listeners do and don’t do. Incidentally, Qobuz and Primephonics include access to booklets for most (but admittedly not all) releases. I don’t understand your reference to handheld devices. I use an iPad only for control of Apps, it has no place in the actual streaming/download chain.

By "handheld devices" I was referring to tablets (which I find awkward to use) and smartphones (which I do not possess). I think we are going to have to agree to differ on our preferred formats, but do wish that a CD recommendation (possibly in addition to download) was a requirement for reviewers.

[Lordgeous]

A strange shortlist and whilst I’m not the forum’s foremost fortepiano fan I can’t think she dug very deeply. My dislike of fp is confirmed in slow movts where absence of sustaining encourages excessive decoration.

Glad I'm not the only one! A bizzare choice of chosen versions. Why give us extracts from recordings she dislikes at the expense of so many versions by wonderful pianists? It seems almost insulting to ignore so many, though she did make a little explanation at the end. I'd been really looking forward to this BAL of one of my favourite concertos. Disappointing. Maybe there'd be more time for the music if the 'expert' didn't have to chat with AM? And why do they both always agree on every point??!! Don't we deserve an hour long uninterrupted feature by a specialist?

[Maclintick]

Bit of an odd one, this BAL...For non-Hipps, Goode, Perahia & many others you takes yer choice, & I have no problem with LP's personal preference for RG, but I'm struggling to understand her fulsome appreciation of Bilson/EBS/Gardiner, when she didn't seem to have even considered Brautigam/KA/Willens....

[vinteuil]

.

... I feel Lucy Parham's heart isn't really in to HIPP. So many good, different, (better?) HIPP recordings have come out since the (fine) Bilson one from the 1980s

[vinteuil]

Mozart 24/Goode/Orpheus/Nonesuch CD

. I presume the same recording as in the five CD set -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00S1VGWKM

.

[Wolfram]

. I presume the same recording as in the five CD set -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00S1VGWKM

.

I wonder what's on the fifth disc; as far as I remember he only recorded 8 of the concertos spread over 4 discs. I've just looked at the link and it's all in Japanese of course. He did record a disc of the sonatas for Nonsuch, so I wonder if that might be the mystery disc?

[Bryn]

I wonder what's on the fifth disc; as far as I remember he only recorded 8 of the concertos spread over 4 discs. I've just looked at the link and it's all in Japanese of course. He did record a disc of the sonatas for Nonsuch, so I wonder if that might be the mystery disc?

The numerals are there in Arabic form. Amusing that there is no K. 467.

Present in the 5 disc set are:

K. 271
K. 453
K. 456
K. 459
K. 466
K. 488 x 2
K. 491
K. 503
K. 595

The '5th' disc has recordings from 1981 (K. 488 and K. 453).

[Barbirollians]

Bit of an odd one, this BAL...For non-Hipps, Goode, Perahia & many others you takes yer choice, & I have no problem with LP's personal preference for RG, but I'm struggling to understand her fulsome appreciation of Bilson/EBS/Gardiner, when she didn't seem to have even considered Brautigam/KA/Willens....

I agree I never got with Bilson’s Mozart at all . Brautigam much more my kind of fortepiano player - just sounds much more interesting and expressive to my ears.

[Barbirollians]

I bought the four Goode CDs when they first came out and indeed they are very fine. K453 and a second K488 were not among them.

[Bryn]

I bought the four Goode CDs when they first came out and indeed they are very fine. K453 and a second K488 were not among them.

Chronologically, in terms of recording date, the first K. 488, surely?

[Ein Heldenleben]

A strange shortlist and whilst I’m not the forum’s foremost fortepiano fan I can’t think she dug very deeply. My dislike of fp is confirmed in slow movts where absence of sustaining encourages excessive decoration.
The upshot is that I shall not be purchasing any additions to the shelves.

Just been reading The Denis Matthews guide to Beethoven Piano Sonatas. He thinks the decorations were not so much a product of lack of sustain but a result of the harpsichord having little dynamic range and so interest in the melodic line had to be sustained through decoration. This performance technique became ingrained and carried over into fortepiano playing.

[Barbirollians]

Chronologically, in terms of recording date, the first K. 488, surely?

Indeed it seems K453 was coupled with K488 on a much earlier disc from 1981.