Mozart Momentum - 1786

Following 2021’s Mozart Momentum – 1785, pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra continue their exploration of two miraculous years in Mozart’s life. This album moves on to 1786, with Mozart now settled in Vienna (“the land of the piano,” as he called it) and composing his greatest piano concertos and chamber music, each fizzing with energy and reaching to extraordinary depths. The synergy of Andsnes and his musicians can be heard in every bar, as if each player were instinctively attuned to every contour in Mozart’s music. The result is an intensely thrilling performance of Piano Concerto No. 23, its second-movement Adagio one of Mozart’s most beautiful and heart-rending creations. Composed the same month as No. 23, Piano Concerto No. 24 possesses a grandeur that heralds the age of Beethoven. Equally sublime—and sublimely played—are the chamber works that bind this album together, including the Piano Quartet No. 2, a work of dazzling energy with moments of breathtaking intimacy.