{"id":12217,"date":"2013-05-07T08:21:17","date_gmt":"2013-05-07T13:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=12217"},"modified":"2013-05-07T08:21:17","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T13:21:17","slug":"album-review-angela-hewitt-prefers-her-mozart-like-your-skin-clear-and-flawless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2013\/05\/07\/album-review-angela-hewitt-prefers-her-mozart-like-your-skin-clear-and-flawless\/","title":{"rendered":"Album review: Angela Hewitt prefers her Mozart like your skin — clear and flawless"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hewitt\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"bax\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I can’t resist comparing two excellent new releases of Mozart piano concertos that include his final No. 27, K595: Canadian great Angela Hewitt on Hyperion versus Italian upstart Alessio Bax on Signum Classics.<\/p>\n

Hewitt’s disc also includes No. 17, K453, both performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Mantua, conducted by Hannu Lintu.<\/p>\n

Bax has programmed the darker-hued No. 24, K491, with the help of conductor Simon Over and the Southbank Sinfonia. He also includes a solo turn, on the theme and eight Variations on Sarti’s ‘Come un agnello,’<\/em> K460.<\/p>\n

Both of these recordings, like just about every one of the dozens of recent Mozart releases out there, are excellent. So expressing a preference becomes an issue of splitting hairs.<\/p>\n

Angela Hewitt’s recording is perfection itself — not just in how precisely she places each and every note, but in how she and the orchestra sound as if they are breathing and working as one. I couldn’t help picturing a fashion-magazine face, impeccably made-up, with the tiny flaws and blemishes of humanity carefully botoxed and photoshopped out of the way.<\/p>\n

Unlike these faces, Hewitt is real, but I like to experience a bit more texture in my music, a bit more Fallen Man and a little less Platonic Ideal.<\/p>\n

Hewitt’s album opens with one of the most popular of Mozart’s piano concertos, the G Major. Here, especially, I admire Lintu’s exceptionally rich orchestral textures. The piano playing is graceful, fluid and flawless.<\/p>\n

Bax’s touch places a microscopic layer of velvet between his fingertips and the piano keys. It’s a very seductive sound. Bax is also a bit less fleet than Hewitt, taking more than 2 minutes longer to play the concerto — most of that time going into the second movement, which he manages to keep aloft like a delicate souffl\u00e9.<\/p>\n

The C minor concerto is a dramatic treat, with sounds of foreboding lurking behind the piano’s fine passagework. That concerto’s slow movement is one of the most beautiful ever written.<\/p>\n

On the other hand the ‘Come un agnello’ variations are nothing special. Not everything Mozart wrote was a masterpiece. (Here’s a bit of trivia: this little song pops up in Don Giovanni<\/em>, which Mozart wrote three years later.)<\/p>\n

The Southbank Sinfonia is no match for the Italian orchestra on Hewitt’s recording, but my vote goes to Bax — with the proviso that I really am splitting hairs.<\/p>\n

For all the details on Hewitt’s album, click here<\/a>. For Bax’s, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John Terauds<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can’t resist comparing two excellent new releases of Mozart piano concertos that include his final No. 27, K595: Canadian great Angela Hewitt on Hyperion versus Italian upstart Alessio Bax on Signum Classics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,77,36,47,51,1],"tags":[6451,206,219,286,1589,2287,2655,6471,3011],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/05\/hewitt.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-3b3","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12217"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}