Concertos Pour Piano K456/K459

Mozart: Piano Concertos No 18 And 19 / Schoonderwoerd, Ensemble Cristofori, Mozart / Schooderwoerd / Ensemble Cristofori, Release Date: 02/26/2013, Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Performer: Arthur Schoonderwoerd, Orchestra/Ensemble: Cristofori, Number of Discs: 1. On this disc, Arthur Schoonderwoerd plays a fortepiano that sounds like a harpsichord in front of a small orchestra (six strings, winds, and timpani) on period instruments. With the clipped phrasing he demands from the orchestra and the glassy sound he gets from his own instrument, Schoonderwoerd performs delicate, but convincing versions of these two concertos. The first movement of Concerto No. 18, for instance, sounds not hilariously good tempered or intense, but pleasantly jaunty. The timbres are light, and deliberately so. In his notes Schoonderwoerd bemoans the fact that "even current historical performance practice for Mozart's music continues to be subjugated by the tonal idiom of the nineteenth century." With it's light textures and carefully accented phrases, his little orchestra attempts to evade that presumably romantic influence.