In Piano Concerto No. 22, K.482, Mozart uses clarinets for the first time in one of his concertos, assigning varied tasks to wind instruments to create a novel orchestral sound.
Recording & Production
For this recording, the musicians adopted a 'theatre in the round' microphone placement, with the keyboard in the center, winds facing it, and strings surrounding the piano, to bring the wind instruments to the fore.
Performer Biography
Kristian Bezuidenhout, the fortepiano soloist, won first prize and the audience prize at the Bruges Fortepiano Competition at the age of 21.
Composition History
Between 1782 and 1786, Mozart composed no fewer than fifteen piano concertos, with six of them written in 1784 alone.
Composer Biography
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the composer, left his employment as a court musician in Salzburg in 1781 to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist and composer in Vienna.
Instruments
The fortepiano used in this recording was made by Paul McNulty in 2009, modeled after an instrument by Anton Walter & Sohn from 1805.
Interpretation
In this recording, the performers extended Mozart's improvisatory spirit to the orchestra, with solo wind instruments often departing from the printed score through planned and refined embellishments.
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