Gottlieb Wallisch, Piatti Quartet - Mozart: Piano Concertos 12, 13 & 14 (2013) [Official Digital Download - 24bit/192kHz]

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Gottlieb Wallisch, Piatti Quartet - Mozart: Piano Concertos 12, 13 & 14 (2013) [Official Digital Download - 24bit/192kHz]

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The Quartet’s debut recording features master Mozartian Gottlieb Wallisch in a stunning performance of his fellow Austrian’s own rarely-heard chamber orchestrations in ‘Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 12, 13 & 14’. In contrast to the orchestral version the ensemble strikingly enhances the intricacies of the string writing and encourages immediate interaction among the five musicians.

Wallisch and the Piatti Quartet performed this repertoire to packed audiences at various venues and festivals across the UK in the summer and autumn of 2011.

In 2012 the Piatti Quartet (Charlotte Scott 1st violin, Michael Trainor 2nd violin, David Wigram viola, Jessie Ann Richardson cello) were chosen for the UK-wide ‘Future Classics Classical Tour’ designed to promote the ‘stars of tomorrow’.

The Quartet has performed at both the Newbury Spring Festival and the Bath International Festivals plus major UK venues UK including the Purcell room, Conway Hall, St Georges (Bristol), The Queens Hall (Edinburgh) and has made numerous appearances live on BBC Radio 3.

Named a Steinway Artist in 2012, Gottlieb Wallisch is a competition prize-winner and a respected artist in the Viennese piano tradition.

Wallisch has performed with many leading orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales and has appeared at leading festivals and in major concert halls including the Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Tonhalle Zurich, Musikhalle Hamburg and Singapore Arts Festival amongst others.

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer: Gottlieb Wallisch

Reviews: As the headnote suggests, these performances are played by piano and string quartet in what was acceptable practice in the 18th century, when reduced versions of Mozart’s concertos were routinely published. Still, when I listen to these sensitive, well-played versions of Mozart, I hear the orchestral versions going through my head. Other listeners may be more readily adaptable. This recording has its own appeal, besides the fact that it is beautifully recorded by Linn. The opening of K 414 sounds indeed like a sprightly string quartet, until Wallisch’s relatively robust entrance. I say relatively robust, because I feel that, in order to balance with the quartet, he seems to be holding back at times. I have heard the slow movement of K 414 played with more tension; in this movement the usual contrast with a full orchestra is appealing. For contrast, one might listen to the Pollini recording. On the other hand, the concluding rondo of K 415, one of Mozart’s most Haydnesque movements, is delightfully played, and the gentle approach to the slow movement of that concerto works particularly well. Of course there are many other recordings of these pieces, including Perahia’s, Ashkenazy’s, Uchida’s, and also Maria João Pires’s of the K 449. Here is a different take on Mozart by a quartet often playing wittily as well as exquisitely, and by a talented pianist.