It seems as though new recordings of one or another Mozart
piano concerto come out daily. Maybe it’s because Mozart wrote so many of piano
concertos (twenty-seven in all), and people continue to like them (well, at
least the last dozen or so). Or maybe it’s because pianists and conductors find
so many ways to approach them (modern instruments and style, period instruments
and practice, full and chamber orchestras, etc.). Who knows. In any case, modern listeners already have a
multitude of good recordings among which to choose, and I don’t suppose it
hurts to have a new batch of contenders appear regularly (so long as listeners
are not buying each and every one of them with money they may not have). With
this Simax recording, we find Norwegian pianist Christian Ihle Hadland tackling
Mozart’s Piano Concertos 21 and 22, a daunting task because they’re a
couple of warhorses recorded many times over. Hadland comes through relatively
unscathed.
Until I received this disc, I had never heard Hadland play
the piano. He is, indeed, a sensitive, gifted musician. Whether he surpasses so
many other pianists in this recorded repertoire, only the individual listener
can determine. There are, after all, a number of fine pianists to consider,
people like Stephen Kovacevich, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Daniel Barenboim, Murray
Perahia, and a boatload of others.
Nevertheless, Hadland deserves his shot.
The album starts with the Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467. Because the filmmakers of
a popular 1967 Swedish film titled Elvira
Madigan used the second movement of No.
21 throughout their movie, people have since referred to the concerto as
“Elvira Madigan.” Given Mozart’s penchant for theatricality, I’m sure it would
please him.
Hadland handles the outer movements of No. 21 with a fine dexterity, and his
playing exudes a joyful spontaneity. It’s that famous Andante that that bothers me. You can hear a snippet of it below. It
seems to move along too quickly, without as much sentiment or feeling as other
pianists have found in it, as though Hadland were saying, “You’ve heard all
this before so often I thought I’d just get it out of the way as fast as
possible.” It loses some of its dreamy, ethereal flavor in the process. This is
not, however, to suggest Hadland doesn’t demonstrate some lovely, delicate
technique or that the performance is without charm. The performance strikes one
as quite spirited, in fact, and leaves one uplifted at the end.
Mozart completed the Piano
Concerto No. 22 in E flat Major, K. 482 in 1785, shortly after writing No. 21. Therefore, expect some obvious
similarities. Two major differences, though, are the composer’s use of
clarinets in No. 22 and later a final-movement
Allegro with a theme from his Horn Concerto No. 3.
In No. 22, I
still had memories of the Bezuidenhout recording with the Freiburg Baroque
Orchestra lingering fresh in mind, Bezuidenhout’s recording being one I’ve
become quite fond of. So Hadland’s newer rendering maybe had a little too much
to live up to. Nevertheless, Bezuidenhout plays it on a fortepiano and Hadland
on a modern piano, so any serious comparisons are inappropriate in any case.
Hadland plays No. 22 with the same
gusto we hear in No. 21, and while
that part of the proceedings goes delightfully, it’s again the slow movement
that gave me pause. Hadland seems so determined not to sentimentalize it that
he sort of squeezes some of the breath out of it. Fortunately, the music has
enough dramatic, operatic character to it that it survives pleasingly enough.
Then there’s Mozart’s fetching “hunting” theme to conclude the work, Hadland
treating it with high good humor.
Simax recorded the pianist and orchestra at the Oslo
Konserthus in 2011, and while the sound may not aspire to audiophile standards,
it’s pleasant enough. It displays a wide stereo spread, with reasonable depth
and dynamics, yet there’s a warm, ambient glow to remind us of a realistic
venue and not a dry studio. Midrange transparency is only average, and the
piano looms rather large, appearing a bit too broad to sound entirely lifelike.
Still, the piano, like the rest of the sound, communicates a sweet, if slightly
soft, tone that is easy on the ear.
To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:
JJP
JJP
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