Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 24 & 25, K. 491,503
These readings appear to be the beginning of a cycle, which should come as welcome news to all Mozarteans. Born in Prague in 1930, Ivan Moravec is a pianist of uncommon gifts and one of the most sympathetic interpreters of Mozart's music ever to sit at a keyboard. His accounts of these concertos, recorded in 1995 and 1997, blend strength and gentleness, spontaneity and calculation, the playful and the serious, in a unique way--stirring in the listener that feeling of elevation that is the hallmark of the very greatest Mozart performances. Marriner and the ASMF attain the same high level of excellence, and the sound is superb.--Ted Libbey