Keyboardist
Kristian Bezuidenhout's series of
Mozart piano concertos with the
Freiburger Barockorchester has been slow to develop, with several years before each new volume appears. This gives
Bezuidenhout time to evolve his approach, and he has apparently been inspired by strong sales (this release landed on best-seller lists late in the summer of 2022) to try new things as the series develops. Here, he serves as his own conductor; an earlier release in the series featured
Petra Muellejans with the baton, but the orchestra by now knows what
Bezuidenhout wants and delivers beautiful blends and solo playing. He continues and even expands his use of ornamentation this time around, and once again, he inserts the piano into orchestral passages as a kind of nod to the keyboard's earlier continuo function. He is subtle in his use of this technique, it is true, but this seems especially questionable in the first movement of the
Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, K. 271, where
Mozart takes the revolutionary step, still resounding three decades later in
Beethoven's
Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, of incorporating the piano into the opening material. Having
Bezuidenhout tinkling along behind the strings vitiates the contrast inherent in
Mozart's conception. As he has earlier,
Bezuidenhout uses a small orchestra (four each of first and second violins) and takes brisk tempos, probably too brisk for some while bracing and vigorous for others.
Bezuidenhout's reading of the central movement of
K. 271, bringing out its similarity to an operatic scene and ornamenting it accordingly, works beautifully; his quick reading of the Andante of the
Piano Concerto No. 18 in B flat major, K. 456, perhaps less so. His
Paul McNulty fortepiano, a copy of a
Walter instrument from 1805, is sharp and cutting, and it stands up to the problems of articulation the pianist poses for himself.
Harmonia Mundi's sound from the Ensemblehaus Freiburg is excellently clear, and even those not enamored of every aspect of what
Bezuidenhout does will find this album well executed and well recorded. ~ James Manheim
