Olga Pashchenko and the Belgian orchestra Il Gardellino are recording all of Mozart’s piano concertos. Like the first album in this cycle, their upcoming CD will be recorded at AMUZ. Shortly afterwards, they will present Mozart’s Piano Concertos nos. 8 & 18 and his Sinfonia Concertante for wind and orchestra at this concert.
The 20-year-old Mozart wrote the Piano Concerto no. 8 in C Major, KV 246 for Countess Antonia Lützow in Salzburg in 1776. Although it is less technically demanding than his earlier concertos – so that the countess would be able to play it – it is no less appealing.
In April 1778, Mozart wrote to his father that he was composing a sinfonia concertante for four soloists from the Concert Spirituel in Paris. The performance was cancelled at the last minute and the original score was lost in the mists of time. That is why the reconstructed concerto for four wind players and orchestra exists today in two versions. It is characterised by its cheerfulness, thanks to the humorous dialogues between the wind instruments.
The concert concludes with the Piano Concerto no. 18 in B Flat Major, KV 456, which Mozart is said to have composed in 1784 for the blind piano virtuoso Maria Theresia von Paradis. Whether or not that is true, it certainly didn’t stop him from continuing to innovate and explore the possibilities of the piano concerto: in the final part of this concerto, Mozart contrasts the triple metre in the strings (6/8) with a duple metre in the wind parts (2/4) for several bars, and then does the same with the piano, creating a competing rhythm that was unheard of in a concerto in Mozart’s time.
Program
W.A. Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante, KV 297B | Piano Concerto no. 8 in C Major, KV 246 | Piano Concerto no. 18 in B Flat Major, KV 456
Performers
Olga Pashchenko, fortepiano | Jan De Winne, traverso | Marcel Ponseele, oboe | Bart Aerbeydt, horn | Eyal Street, bassoon | Il Gardellino
