I can’t resist comparing two excellent new releases of Mozart piano concertos that include his final No. 27, K595: Canadian great Angela Hewitt on Hyperion versus Italian upstart Alessio Bax on Signum Classics.
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Hewitt’s disc also includes No. 17, K453, both performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Mantua, conducted by Hannu Lintu.
Bax has programmed the darker-hued No. 24, K491, with the help of conductor Simon Over and the Southbank Sinfonia. He also includes a solo turn, on the theme and eight Variations on Sarti’s ‘Come un agnello,’ K460.
Both of these recordings, like just about every one of the dozens of recent Mozart releases out there, are excellent. So expressing a preference becomes an issue of splitting hairs.
Angela Hewitt’s recording is perfection itself — not just in how precisely she places each and every note, but in how she and the orchestra sound as if they are breathing and working as one. I couldn’t help picturing a fashion-magazine face, impeccably made-up, with the tiny flaws and blemishes of humanity carefully botoxed and photoshopped out of the way.
Unlike these faces, Hewitt is real, but I like to experience a bit more texture in my music, a bit more Fallen Man and a little less Platonic Ideal.
Hewitt’s album opens with one of the most popular of Mozart’s piano concertos, the G Major. Here, especially, I admire Lintu’s exceptionally rich orchestral textures. The piano playing is graceful, fluid and flawless.
Bax’s touch places a microscopic layer of velvet between his fingertips and the piano keys. It’s a very seductive sound. Bax is also a bit less fleet than Hewitt, taking more than 2 minutes longer to play the concerto — most of that time going into the second movement, which he manages to keep aloft like a delicate soufflé.
The C minor concerto is a dramatic treat, with sounds of foreboding lurking behind the piano’s fine passagework. That concerto’s slow movement is one of the most beautiful ever written.
On the other hand the ‘Come un agnello’ variations are nothing special. Not everything Mozart wrote was a masterpiece. (Here’s a bit of trivia: this little song pops up in Don Giovanni, which Mozart wrote three years later.)
The Southbank Sinfonia is no match for the Italian orchestra on Hewitt’s recording, but my vote goes to Bax — with the proviso that I really am splitting hairs.
For all the details on Hewitt’s album, click here. For Bax’s, click here.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
