Mozart: Piano Concerto Nos. 12 & 20 (chamber versions)

Featuring

Lisa Smirnova
Bernhard Krabatsch
New Classic Ensemble Wien
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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Compositional Technique

Mozart's Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 414, shows the influence of Johann Christian Bach, whose piano concertos could be performed as piano quintets, and Mozart himself praised his three concertos as performable 'a Quattro' (with four strings).

Performer Biography

Lisa Smirnova, the pianist on this album, is known as a renowned Mozart specialist and has performed numerous world and national premieres of works by leading contemporary composers.

Interpretation

The New Classic Ensemble Wien uses Carl Czerny's arrangement as a basis for their recording, developing the version during rehearsals, and incorporates Ludwig van Beethoven's cadenzas for the Piano Concerto K. 466.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart described his piano concertos as a "middle ground between too heavy and too light," brilliant and pleasant, satisfying both connoisseurs and general audiences.

Composition History

The Rondo for Piano and Orchestra, K. 386, may have originally been intended as the final movement of Mozart's A major concerto, suggested by similarities in key, form, tempo, and motivic kinships.

Interpretation

The New Classic Ensemble Wien, founded by Lisa Smirnova, aims for a historically informed sound on a modern grand piano, striving for precision, authenticity, and space for improvisation.

Composition History

Carl Czerny, a disciple of Beethoven and later teacher of Franz Liszt, arranged Mozart's Piano Concerto in D minor, K. 466, for a smaller ensemble, making it accessible to a wider audience.