It's always a risk to bring a contemporary composer together with Mozart. With the recording we're listening to, that's no different. The difference in style is already a problem in itself, and then there's the exceptional quality of the compositions. Who can match Mozart, especially in our times when there's so little basis for comparison? Your reviewer continues to struggle with it...
From Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), you hear on this recording his concerto for two pianos KV 365, performed by Margarite Höhrieder and Antti Sijrala, accompanied by the Wiener Concert Verein under the direction of William Garfield Walker. A dream of a composition, written by a Mozart who seems carefree, looks upon beauty, and if that's not 'beautiful' enough? Then he makes sure to make it all even more rosy with this magnificent concerto.
The piano playing doesn't entirely enchant me, nor does the orchestra. It remains a generally professional performance where true depth stays flat rather than shining, and much is played awkwardly. All the notes stand too far apart from each other. The piano strikes hard only to shift into friendliness, but everything still remains disconnected, lacking cohesion. You have to love it. The entire concerto is performed in the same manner. May I question whether this is really Mozartian?
After those final harmonic Mozart notes, you suddenly get bandoneon with orchestra in stressful sounds, where the piano comes in somewhat aggressively. I expect something different from a tango. You really can't dance to this work unless it's a chaotic choreography. Tango Op. 261 "Cristian en el Tortoni Buenos Aires" by Françoise Choveaux (b.1953) is too complex to simply call a tango. It is, as is too often the case with contemporary work, overthought. There's no spontaneity, and I really struggle with that. It's almost an anticlimax compared to the Mozart concerto. Well, maybe the problem lies with me? Wasn't it a sister of mine who once said: "You're a conservative little fellow" when it came to the Fine Arts in general and music in particular? Ehm...
