WCO Recordings

Mozart: The Early Concerti

Now available for $22.99 through the WCO office at (608) 257-0638

Recorded in 2007 in WCO's beautiful home, the newly remodeled Capitol Theater in the Overture Center for the Arts, this two CD album released in March 2008 features three early Mozart piano concerti with Adam Neiman and the Prague Symphony.

From the CD booklet:

Why the Early Concerti?

All three of the "Salzburg Concerti", B-Flat K. 238, C Major K. 246 and E Flat K. 271 were performed by Mozart himself during a concert in Munich on October 4, 1777. Composed in Salzburg during 1776, they demonstrate the evolution of his genius in the course of just one year, within a genre he perfected.

By recording these three works together, we have afforded the listener the opportunity to hear how Mozart made the transition from an extraordinarily gifted composer to a truly innovative, established master. Both the B-Flat Major and the C Major concerti are laced with tongue-in-cheek humor, charm, and lightness of spirit. It is in the more serious E-Flat Major that we become fully acquainted with Mozart the innovator, the dare-devil, the shocker.

The Symphony No. 38 in D Major was completed on December 6, 1786 and performed in Prague's National Theater on January 19, 1787 with Mozart conducting. In several respects it represents a major advance in Mozart's development as a composer at a time when he was enjoying the success in Prague of the Marriage of Figaro and their commission of Don Giovanni which would premier in Prague in October 1787.

This recording was reviewed by Jacob Stockinger in the Madison Capitol Times

From the review of the concert, April 27, 2007 in Isthmus, by John Barker:

The opening work was the wonderful "Prague" Symphony, No. 38 in D. Nos. 39-41 are justly celebrated as a culminating trilogy, but No. 38 should not be overshadowed. Only in three movements, it is a magnificent combination of Mozart's operatic spirit with his sophisticated symphonic logic. .... The soloist this time was the brilliant young American pianist Adam Neiman, a player of remarkable skill and taste. As his vehicles he brought two of Mozart's youthful Concertos, ones that lie precisely on either side of the border between Mozart's earlier, still-developing creativity and the first evidence of his fuller maturity. .... The "Concerto No. 9 in E-flat" (K.271), is named for a certain Mlle. Jeunehomme, clearly a player whose talent challenged Mozart to new levels of scale and imagination. Composed only a year later than its predecessor, it is simply bursting with ideas and originality. Such a challenge also brought into play Neiman's full talents: his command of virtuosic technique, of subtle nuances, and of dynamic contrasts.

To these were added, in the elegant cadenza of the first movement, a supple rubato that foreshadowed more to come in the second movement, a minor-key piece with "tragic" power equal to anything Mozart conceived later. It even seemed to anticipate, surprisingly, the style of Chopin yet to come, at least in Neiman's hands. Such delicacy was evident also in the thoughtful solos passages in the Rondo finale, but its fast main theme Neiman ripped off with breakneck precision.

Such a triumphant display of music-making! It is good news that the WCO will soon be issuing a CD release of its Mozart with Neiman. I've already ordered my copy.

Track Listing:

Disc 1: (53:59)
Piano Concerto No. 6 in B-Flat Major, K.238
1. I. Allegro Aperto (7:10)
2. II. Andante un poco adagio (6:02)
3. III. Rondeau: Allegro (7:32)

Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-Flat Major, K.271 Jeunehomme
4. I. Allegro (10.42)
5. II. Andantino (12.09)
6. III. Rondeau: Presto - Menuetto: Cantabile - Presto (10:21)

Disc 2: (49:11)
Piano concerto No. 8 in C Major, K 246 Lützow
1. I. Allegro Aperto (7:36)
2. II. Andante (7:48)
3. III. Rondeau: Tempo di menuetto (2:12)

Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K 504 Prague
4. I. Adagio - Allegro (10.43)
5. II. Andante (9:54)
6. III. Presto (5.56)

TT - 103:10