WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-91) SOMMCD 268-2 PIANO CONCERTOS Nos. 20, K466 & 21, K467 Valerie Tryon piano, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Jac van Steen conductor MOZART FANTASIA IN C MINOR, K396, Valerie Tryon piano PIANO CONCERTO No. 10 for TWO PIANOS, K365 PIANO CONCERTOS Valerie Tryon, Peter Donohoe pianos Nos.20, K466 & 21, K467 PIANO CONCERTO No. 7 for THREE PIANOS, K242 Peter Donohoe, Valerie Tryon, Mishka Rushdie Momen pianos Valerie Tryon piano Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Boris Brott conductor SONATA for TWO PIANOS, K448 Valerie Tryon, Peter Donohoe pianos PIANO CONCERTOS CD 1 CD2 for TWO PIANOS, K365 Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor, K466 [34:19] Piano Concerto No.10 in E flat for Two Pianos, K365 [24:49] 1 I. Allegro 15:32 1 I. Allegro 10:26 Valerie Tryon, Peter Donohoe pianos 2 II. Romance 9:40 2 II. Andante 6:56 3 III. Allegro assai 9:07 3 III. Allegro 7:27 for THREE PIANOS, K242 Piano Concerto No.21 in C, K467 [31:29] Sonata for Two Pianos in D, K448 [23:57] Peter Donohoe, Valerie Tryon, 4 I. Allegro maestoso 16:55 4 I. Allegro con spirito 8:09 5 II. Andante 6:43 5 II. Andante 9:13 Mishka Rushdie Momen pianos 6 III. Allegro vivace assai 7:51 6 III. Allegro molto 6:35 7 Fantasia in C minor, K396 – Adagio 11:15 Piano Concerto No.7 in F for Three Pianos, K242 [23:33] 7 I. Allegro 9:08 PIANO SONATA Total duration: 77:03 8 II . Adagio 8:07 9 III. Rondeau – Tempo di Menuetto 6:18 for TWO PIANOS, K448 Total duration: 72:21 Valerie Tryon, Peter Donohoe pianos Design: Andrew Giles Recorded at Cadogan Hall, London CD1: January 30-31, 2017 Producer: Siva Oke Engineer: Ben Connellan CD2: June 12-13, 2017 Producer: Jeremy Hayes Engineer: Ben Connellan Front cover: Mozart Family (detail), Johann Nepomuk della Croce (1736-1819), Salzburg / Royal Philharmonic Orchesta De Agostini Picture Library / Bridgeman Images Booklet Editor: Michael Quinn Jac van Steen, Boris Brott conductors DDD © & 2018 SOMM RECORDINGS · THAMES DITTON · SURREY · ENGLAND Made in the EU he half-dozen works for permutations its original incarnation demonstrates is replete with lyrical Mozartian grace, to in the rich contrasts and technical of one, two and three pianos heard a sympathetic appreciation of the the concluding Rondo notable for the challenges of a work whose difficulty on this disc span the decade from abilities of its intended recipients. mischievous coup de théâtre at its end: a and ambition also serve as auguries of T1775 – when Mozart was desperate to While two of the piano lines can claim faux-coda immediately followed by the accomplishments still to come. leave his poorly paid position in the court to be moderately difficult, the third, actual punctuation mark that has been of Hieronymous Colloredo, the Prince- presumably for the younger child, is cheekily signalled in advance. Conceived as a dialogue between the Archbishop of Salzburg – to 1785. By then discernibly less taxing. Even so, the two solo instruments, its sense of shared he was well into his creative maturity and music makes more demands of its The exact date of composition of bonhomie – marked by a high-spirited enjoying unprecedented (if soon to be players than it offers concessions, the Piano Concerto No. 10 in E-flat, egging-on towards greater excess and diminished) commercial success. the intricate interlacing of the K365/316a for two pianos, is contested. expressiveness – seems to conjure the three piano voices in the opening While cadenza scores for the first and sibling rivalry of two capable pianists Taken together, they illustrate the Allegro producing conversational third movements suggest they were given permission to out-do the other. evolution of his understanding of counterpoint of particular richness. composed in the period between In all respects wholly supportive, the the piano’s capabilities, his intuitive Its discretely dazzling complexity August 1775 and January 1777 (the orchestral accompaniment participates development of the concerto beyond its simultaneously exploits and validates evidence resting on an examination of in the play-making, entering into the classical constraints and into its defining the use of the three conjoined voices to the paper stock used by Mozart), recent exuberant flights of fancy with gameful form, and his seemingly inexhaustible create effects far beyond the capabilities research by the scholars Alan Tyson complicity and utter discretion. capacity for invention. of a single instrument. and Stephan D Lindeman point more confidently to 1779. Despite the combative nature of the The earliest work here is the Piano Equally, while an effervescent galant- pianos, the concerto is nothing if not Concerto No. 7 in F, K242. One of three style gloss provides pleasing balletic One (probable) certainty is that it was democratic. After an extended Allegro in piano concertos completed in 1776, poise and forward propulsion of refined composed with Mozart’s elder sister, which the orchestra introduces the main it was commissioned by the Countess elegance, there’s a bubbling, driving Maria Anna (‘Nannerl’), in mind as his theme, the pianos enter together, assert Antonia Lodron (whose surname often vigour to the writing that cleverly serves intended companion at the keyboard. their individuality and then join again to serves as its title) to be played by her to disguise the contrasting demands Both siblings – Mozart was 23 at the propel the movement forward. A similar and her two daughters. More familiarly it makes on each of the individual time, Nannerl five years older – were relationship defines the more meditative known in a later two-piano version, lines. The middle-movement Adagio accomplished pianists, a fact testified middle Andante movement, in effect 2 3 a graceful pas de deux for the two solo of embraces with the other, both The breezy, bright Molto allegro finale, altogether idiomatic flights of dark- instruments. The finale is a rousing Rondo pirouetting together in quiet rapture an almost archly playful dance, carries toned fantasy. If, despite the cornucopia that matches rhythmic energy with with the utmost delicacy. itself with manicured verve, pulling of effects – slicing dissonances, chromatic athletic lyrical elegance. and pushing the focus between the embellishments and corkscrewed When the pair gave the first performance two pianos in music of delightfully harmonies left unfulfilled among them – Composed in 1781 for a performance in late 1781 in Auernhammer’s home, ingenuous resourcefulness. it seems more texturally exposed in places by Mozart and his pupil Josepha von it’s a measure of Mozart’s newfound (Stadler, after all, was not Mozart) in others Auernhammer, the Sonata for Two regard for his pupil that he assigned Although it bears an earlier catalogue it beguiles with flourishes of colouristic Pianos in D, K448 returned to the galant the leading piano role to her. A nominal number, the K396/K385f Fantasia agility and telling timbral agitation. style of the Seventh Piano Concerto five compliment, perhaps, given the in C minor was begun the year after years earlier. Although Auernhammer was shared, ebullient prominence of both the two-piano Sonata in 1782, when Following his dismissal from his resented besotted with her teacher, it remained instruments, the opening Allegro con it was originally conceived (but left and poorly-paid position at the court a love unrequited, Mozart disparagingly spirito setting the tone for much of what unfinished) for piano and violin. Twenty of Salzburg’s Prince-Archbishop in May writing to his father, Leopold: “She is as fat is to follow. The movement is marked, years later it was completed in an 1781, Mozart escaped to the more as a peasant wench, perspires so much you too, by a quicksilver wit in which each extended arrangement for solo piano agreeably cosmopolitan Vienna. There, feel like vomiting, and walks about in such piano line seems to dare the other to by Maximilian Stadler, the composer and he was to severely test compositional skimpy attire that you can read as clear as ever-greater flamboyance. Benedictine monk who had served as stamina against entrepreneurial day ‘Please look here’”. adviser to Mozart’s widow, Constanze, ambition. Hoping the fashionable The lyrical, lullaby-accented Andante since his death in 1791. piano concerto was sufficient to attract But Auernhammer’s musicianship offers, if nothing else, an opportunity audiences to a series of subscription evidently won over the composer’s for both pianos to catch their breath. In terms of scale, Stadler’s completion concerts he planned, over the next five shallow disapproval, a later letter home Except in its limpid mellifluousness it also was ambitious, extending the 27-bar years he wrote 15 such works, many of noting “The young lady plays with provides a filigree-delicate poetic ballast original (in which the violin belatedly them high-watermarks of the repertoire. charm”. That quality is to the fore in to the earlier exuberance while inking in entered at Bar 23) into a 70-bar a sonata distinguished by the often- the ever-encroaching sense of intimacy realisation. But its execution manages The ink was still drying on the score of blissful intimacies entwining the two – as if a shared secret is being whispered to be both deferential and imaginative, the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, piano lines, each locked in the tenderest aloud – between the two piano lines. spinning the single piano line into K466 when Mozart himself gave the first 4 5 performance in Vienna on February 11, underlined by their infusing the opening especially sophisticated and challenging to be sent home smiling and satisfied 1785. One of only two piano concertos Allegro with an increasingly storm-tossed writing for the left hand suggesting rather than shaken and stirred.