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The Academy of Ancient Music’s cycle of recordings of the complete Mozart piano concertos has changed its look several times. As designers have come and gone across the 13 volumes, album covers have been rethought in several different styles, a visible pointer to the 30 years it has taken to get the project completed.
It has been worth the wait. From the start this cycle set out a more flexible and emotionally warm approach to period-instrument Mozart than was common at the time and although other recordings of the concertos on period instruments have multiplied since then, it has grown in stature along the way.
Above all, the performances feel as spontaneous as they did on the first volume. The selling point of the cycle is that Robert Levin improvises cadenzas and other ornamentation in the heat of the moment, as Mozart would have done. The sense of freedom is infectious.
This final volume contains two concertos, the majestic K503 in C-major and the last concerto, the gently lyrical K595 in B-flat major. With the exception of the finale of K595, which feels a touch laboured (unusually for this cycle), the performances are as full of life and uplifting as ever. Levin remains unfailingly quick-witted as soloist and Richard Egarr, who took over as conductor partway through, has been daring with portamentos and an ever more demonstrative style from the Academy of Ancient Music.
As a filler, Louise Alder makes an ideal soprano soloist in the concert aria “Ch’io mi scordi di te?”, which has a solo piano part like a mini-concerto. Not to be missed.
★★★★★
‘Mozart: Piano Concertos K503 and K595’ is released by AAM
