Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Piano Concert No.24 in C minor K 491 (1786) [26:45]
Piano Concert No.25 in C major K 503 (1786) [28:00]
Ronald Brautigam (fortepiano)
Die Kölner Akademie/Michael Alexander Willens
rec. December 2010, Immanuelskirche, Wuppertal, Germany
BIS-SACD-1894 [55:29] 
This release has aroused some strong reactions in certain regions of the reviewing
field – areas prone to becoming tetchy and irritable around authentic performance
recordings. For this reason I wasn’t too worried about approaching this second
volume of Mozart piano concertos from Ronald Brautigam and Die Kölner Akademie.
These are indeed historically informed and/or authentic performances, with
period instruments and little or no vibrato in either strings or winds. Fans
of the fortepiano will know what to expect here as well. The trade-off in
terms of sustaining quality, dynamic range and sheer sonority is that we have
to accept these effects if attempting to revive the sound which Mozart would
have expected to hear in his own lifetime. As usual in his BIS recordings
of which there is now a healthy quantity, Ronald Brautigam performs with a
fortepiano made by specialist maker Paul McNulty, in this case manufactured
after an instrument from around 1795 by Anton Walter. This sounds fine enough,
but even with the lightness of the accompaniment from Die Kölner Akademie
it is clear how the gentler, more wooden sound of the fortepiano is at its
best when sparkling in and above the textures of the orchestra rather than
attempting the illusion of a singing voice.
Complaints have been made about the weight of the winds against the string
sound in K 491, but to my ears this is only an issue with the quieter
passages, where the strings are able to play really softly and the winds –
also authentic instruments and with a limited dynamic range when it comes
to the reeds – have to maintain a certain dynamic to balance amongst themselves.
Fortepiano and harpsichord specialist Melvyn Tan recorded these works with
Roger Norrington in the 1980s for EMI, and these performances are now available
via Virgin Classics on a reasonably priced 2CD Veritas release. The
London Classical Players have a generally warmer sound in this recording,
and with a larger body of strings there is a little more volume and impact,
but the differences are not so very huge. The tempi of the central Larghetto
of K491 are also similar between the versions, Brautigam/Willens coming
in with a tighter but not overly hasty 5:58, Tan/Norrington not too
far behind with 6:23.
John Irving emphasises the grandeur of these concertos in the opening of his
booklet notes, and the opening of K 503 is one of the grandest in Mozart’s
output. The trick of portraying large scale with almost chamber-music forces
almost comes off in this recording, but never quite lifts the spirit in the
way some recordings have in the past, Tan/Norrington amongst them. Norrington’s
largesse of scale does however come at the price of sounding a tad laborious,
so amongst these titans of authenticity it is as usual a case of swings and
roundabouts. Just to broaden my horizons a little more, I returned to the
box set of Mozart’s complete concertos with fortepiano played by Viviana Sofronitsky
on the Etcetera label (see review).
The orchestra is certainly bigger-boned in the opening of K 503, and
with the winds more recessed in the acoustic and the fortepiano at an arguably
more realistic, i.e. softer balance the picture is quite different here when
compared to Brautigam and Michael Alexander Willens. This set is by no means
perfect, and as an eleven disc set by no means on a level playing field, but
I still feel it has a good deal to offer if you want a one-stop version of
Mozart’s concertos on fortepiano.
Brautigam’s recording is also part of a gradually unfurling cycle and the
question is does it excite enough to make one eager to buy the next release?
This is a question only you can answer for yourself. If you are anti-fortepiano
or just find it doesn’t float your boat in the way a well-played modern instrument
does then this recording won’t change your mind. I like to have both options
available, but don’t find this BIS recording, fine as it is, to be special
enough to embark on a new collection. I have nothing against the authentic
sound and chamber-music qualities in these performances, but even with all
SACD channels in full swing I can’t really say I became truly involved in
these performances. There are plenty of nice things – the playing is good,
the winds full of pungent colour and character – but there was nothing which
really made me lean forward in my seat, or had me gripping the furnishings
in an anguish of conflicting emotions. I discovered halfway through listening
that I preferred it through speakers rather than on headphones which may or
may not be a consideration – the stereo version is fine, the surround effect
subtle and with BIS’s usual judicious good taste and feel for realism. Either
way, were this to be the only fortepiano recording around I would be very
happy with it, but it’s just not ‘different’ or deeply felt enough to make
me feel I’m on that renewed voyage of discovery which makes me lose all sense
of time and place while listening.
The choice of photo for the cover of this release may seem surprising, but
it is part of a series: ‘From Forest to Concert Hall – build your own fortepiano’.
As us country bumpkins can see, the man on the log is not wielding an axe,
but what might technically be described as ‘a dirty great mallet’. This is
for hammering in wedges with which to split a linden tree, which we are told
is the raw material for the heads of the hammers which strike the strings.
If you are new to Mozart on fortepiano and are keen to add to your SACD collection
then this developing BIS set may well fit the bill as a new project. If you
know and love your Melvyn Tan or have Sofronisky or Jos van Immerseel’s set
on Channel Classics on your list I doubt that this will revolutionise your
thinking on these magnificent works.
Dominy Clements
Pretty decent, but unlikely to revolutionise your thinking on these works.