Prom 29: Leif Ove Andsnes – Mozart Momentum 2 (7.08.22)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Sunday 7 August 2022
Royal Albert Hall

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 38 in D major, ‘Prague’
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Die Zufriedenheit
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Der Zauberer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Das Veilchen
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concert Aria ‘Ch’io mi scordi di te?’
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Masonic Funeral Music
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor

Christiane Karg soprano
Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Leif Ove Andsnes piano/director

Mozart aimed to please. He created arias that were ‘perfectly tailored’ to their singer’s voice, and rituals of solemn grandeur for his fellow Freemasons. And for his superfans in the music-loving city of Prague, he wrote a symphony designed to knock them backwards with its daring, its energy and its sheer theatrical flair. In this second of three Mozart Momentum concerts at the Proms, Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes zooms in on the year 1786, and finds Mozart at the absolute peak of his game. Soprano Christiane Karg is one of the supreme Mozart interpreters of our time; and Andsnes takes the place of the composer, directing Mozart’s tragic C minor Piano Concerto – some say his greatest – from the piano.

[bluestateprommer]

Crisp start to this Prom, with a fine, spic-and-span reading of Mozart 38, with reduced vibrato very much in the HIPP spirit, and also generous with 1st and 3rd movement repeats. (The stated running time of 22 minutes concerned me about repeats, and happily turned out to be short by a few minutes [another reason why I don't put running times in the Forum Calendar, but anyway....].) No odd pulling about of tempi or phrasing, which makes sense given that there's no conductor besides Matthew Truscott in the leader's chair.

One does have to tolerate Tom Service as presenter, as per his usual manner, but at least Christiane Karg is getting to speak with somewhat minimal interruption from TS, prior to her selections coming up in a moment.

PS: Wonderful "set" from Christiane Karg, of her three songs with piano accompaniment alone with Leif Ove Andsnes, and then 'Ch'io mi scordi di te?' just now, with the Mahler CO joining in. The 'happy clappers' happily figured out quickly, after Mozart 38, not to applaud between the 3 songs.

One gaffe from TS: this Prom is most emphatically not Christiane Karg's Proms debut, as CK performed at Cadogan Hall back on 21 August 2017, her actual Proms debut. This does look like her RAH Proms debut, however.

[bluestateprommer]

The audience rather co-opted the idea of linking the Masonic Funeral Music directly into PC # 24 with their applause right after the Maurische Trauermusik (the best laid plans, and all that). That aside, this reading of Mozart 24 seemed self-effacing, prim and proper to a fault, where maybe a slight spark was missing from LOA and the Mahler CO to bring it fully to live, at least in the 1st two movements, IMHO. Things picked up a bit in the 3rd movement. Maybe LOA is a bit burnt out after a day of playing 3 Mozart concertos, as well as the concert aria with Christiane Karg, so it's understandable if that's the case, or he just paced himself accordingly.

To end this Prom on a bright note: very generous encore now, duly archived in the Forum Calendar :) .

[LeMartinPecheur]

Posted in the wrong place originally so a little late...

Pace Tom Service, Nancy Storace was English and therefore pronounced Storace not Storachay. Perhaps they said it like that in C18 Vienna but isn't this taking HIPP too far?

A cracking concert nonetheless...

[silvestrione]

Posted in the wrong place originally so a little late...

Pace Tom Service, Nancy Storace was English and therefore pronounced Storace not Storachay. Perhaps they said it like that in C18 Vienna but isn't this taking HIPP too far?

A cracking concert nonetheless...

I had just last week read the account of 'Ch'io mi scordi...' in C. Girdlestone's classic tome on Mozart's Piano Concertos, and read:
'[the wonderful effects in the piece] must be heard (or seen in the score, alas! since this shapely work never leaves the sheath of the Gesangtausgabe)...'
without twigging that it was it was on in a prom. I put Sunday's prom on late, and slowly, with excitement, realised I was listening to it! And yes, a cracking concert.

[Stanfordian]

I've seen Leif Ove Andsnes play in concert a couple of times and on both occasions I found his playing to be on the cold-side emotionally.

[Pulcinella]

Times review: four stars

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mahler-chamber-orchestra-andsnes-review-nimble-fire-in-mozart-momentum-prom-cctbk838t?shareToken=2fef216008205930412e1a86ff718083