MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466; Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major, K. 595 – Evgeny Kissin, piano/Kremerata Baltica – EMI Classics 6 26645 2 3, 63:16 ****:
Evgeny Kissin joins the ranks of luminaries Edwin Fischer, Cyprien Katsaris, Geza Anda, and Daniel Barenboim, each of whom has penchant for playing and conducting Mozart from the keyboard, often to intimate and brilliant effect. The two concertos inscribed here (17-19 June 2008) at the Herkulessaal, Munich capture Kissin in lucid form, elegant and gracious. Kissin appears to favor beauty and balance of tone above all elements in Mozart, perhaps easing off on the blistering drama that can inform the D Minor Concerto. Engineer Arne Akselberg focuses luxuriantly on the woodwinds in both concertos, especially the oboe and bassoon, as Mozart exploits their tonal character in the course of his openwork passages. Kissin’s trills receive a loving aura, and his rising scales, too, emanate a thrilling sense of fluid light. The D Minor Concerto receives rather expansive treatment, perhaps reminiscent of the loving account Bruno Walter led three generations ago in Vienna, likewise from the keyboard. Notable are the Kremerata Baltica strings, more often than not utilizing the tip of the bow to effect a wispier, edgier sound in the Mozart patina than the typical “romantic” performance. Given the weighty body of players, the sound remains traditional with the difference of a transparency that heightens Kissin’s crisp accents from the piano. The volatile cadenza by Beethoven has rarely sounded quite so improvised, so convulsively polyphonic and emotionally compelling.
The “valedictory” B-flat Concerto beautifully counters the essential storminess of the D Minor, despite the former’s excursions into B-flat Major (the Romanze) and D Major for the finale. The colors of the K. 595 seem even more burnished in this reading than in the D Minor, the stops and starts, the wistful, tonic minor melodies in the woodwinds, each contributing to an aura of resignation by way of enameled, rounded phrases. The keyboard staccati against the string pizzicati make a ravishing color, as do the broken chord sequences and rising scales, of which Kissin is a master. The E-flat Major Larghetto, emanating from the solo and proceeding to French horn, winds, and strings, occupies a special space, a musical temenos, if you will, a sacred bower of refined and occasionally poignant consolation. The bubbly verve with which Kissin invests the final Rondo-Allegro does not lack for percolating energy, certainly; but it too seeks a quietude even within its scintillating figures that flirts with minor modes and intimations of mortality. If playing thoughtful Mozart rates as a sign of musical maturity, then the art of Evgeny Kissin is in full flower.
–Gary Lemco
