Bavarian Chamber Orchestra Archive

BEECKE: Piano Concerto in F Major; Piano Concerto in D Major; Andante – Natasa Veljkovic, piano/ Bavarian Chamber Orchestra of Bad Brueckenau/ Johannes Moesus – CPO

by Audiophile Audition | May 8, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

A rare journey into a gifted, neglected talent, a contemporary of Mozart with his own power of expression. BEECKE: Piano Concertos = Piano Concerto in F Major BEEV 108; Piano Concerto in D Major, BEEV 100; Concerto in D Major, BEEV 102: Andante – Natasa Veljkovic, piano/ Bavarian Chamber Orchestra of Bad Brueckenau/ Johannes Moesus – CPO 777 827-2, 62:13 (9/23/16) [Distr. by Naxos] ****:  The name of Ignaz von Beecke (1733-1803), largely forgotten and ignored, now finds resurrection in this 13-15 February 2013 recording of two of his surviving fifteen piano concertos, which rather shine in their galant splendor. Beecke had reknown at the time chiefly for his great skill – a nobile dilettante – in playing the harpsichord, although he composed a wide range of music as well, having studied with Christoph Willibald Gluck. In 1775, Beecke, moreover, met the 19-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Munich and the two engaged in a piano playing competition. The poet and composer Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, who was in the audience, wrote in his Teutsche Chronik (27 April 1775) that in his opinion, von Beecke played far better than Mozart: “In Munich last winter I heard two of the greatest clavier […]