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Reviews: Beethoven, Mozart: Piano Concertos - Sudbin, Vänskä

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Reviews: 1

Review by Wartybliggens March 4, 2014 (5 of 5 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:    
This is a desert island disc. Instead of the kind of fussy masterwork preservation we can find on so many previous recordings, every moment of the music is vividly alive, to the last second of the album. Sudbin takes risks on more than one level. His cadenzas for the Mozart concerto stretch way outside the style of the music to the point of making me laugh out loud (especially the first one), but are somehow still in keeping with its spirit; I found the cadenzas both thrilling and fitting. Then in terms of pianism this is not your typical eggbeater approach - Sudbin sometimes goes extremely quiet, sometimes hits hard, sometimes uses pedal, etc. Whatever works, and it sure does work. He doesn't bother pretending that the nine-foot grand he's playing is a fortepiano. Then there is the orchestra and conducting: swinging, punchy, and always spot-on. It's not swoony string-forward playing like you often get. The winds and horns have equal weight and play wonderfully. The tempos leave room to breathe through a strong pulse.

The recording is absorbingly three-dimensional, especially in surround, and captures the color of the instruments.

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