Hommage `a MOZART = Sonatas for Two Pianos K448 (1 movt.) & K19d; MICK BAUMEISTER Ballade about Mozart; Vicious Circle; RICHIE BEIRACH: Fantasy on a Theme from Mozart Piano Concerto; LISZT Reminiscences de Don Juan – piano duo/jazz duo – Ars Musici

by | Jul 17, 2010 | Classical CD Reviews | 0 comments

Hommage `a MOZART = Sonata for Two Pianos K. 448 (movt. one only). Sonata for Two Pianos K. 19d;  MICK BAUMEISTER Ballade about Mozart; Vicious Circle; RICHIE BEIRACH: Fantasy on a Theme from Mozart Piano Concerto K. 488; LISZT Reminiscences de Don Juan – Klavierduo Hans-Peter & Volker Stenzl/ Jazzduo Mick Baumeister and Richie Beirach – Ars Musici 232417, 62:43 [Distr. by Naxos] ***(*):

I’ve been emceeing recently at a series of Saturday night chamber music & dinner concerts in Hermosa Beach. The programing depends on who is available; the dream would be to invite the performers on this new Ars Musici release and let them have a go at a program like this one that will both add the digestion and delight the diners.

After the opening flourishes and charming interludes of the first movement of Mozart’s mature Sonata K. 448 for 2 Pianos, played with energy and precision by Hans-Peter and Volker Stenzl, the recital send in a quartet of improvisatory pieces by contemporary jazz masters Mick Baumeister (out of Berlin) and Richie Beirach (out of New York), plus Franz Liszt (out of the past). The coolest jazz is Baumeister’s 14-minute "Vicious Circle." The zaniest Mozartian liberties are taken, compliments of Liszt.

The recital ends with (almost) a return to sanity in the form of Mozart’s very early four-hand Sonata K. 19d, composed by the 9-year old Mozart in May 1765. It is like much of the young Mozart, charming, heavily influenced by the galant style represented by J.C. Bach, and already with a superb sense of theater. I say "almost" because as they get deeper into the music the brothers Stenzl add some "jazzy" twists and elaborations that represent edgy in academia. All in all, it’s a surprisingly mind-bending excursion into what we think Mozart sounds like.

Recorded in the studios of the Southwest German Radio in Stuttgart, the sound is quite lovely and takes volume exceptionally well.

– Laurence Vittes

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