Mozart - Piano Concertos Vol 2

The Guardian 80

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano), Manchester Camerata/Takács-Nagy
(Chandos)

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s exhilarating journey through the Mozart piano concertos continues with two richly rewarding works from the fertile year 1784. Both show baroque influences, with quasi-fugal effects in the two magnificent finales, and Bavouzet’s sprightly and incisive playing brings out all the detail, with tiny nuances that bring the lines to life. Mozart wrote the cadenzas (so there are none of the player’s own that proved so eccentric in volume 1); the well-balanced Manchester Camerata is crisp and poised. One real discovery comes in the central Allegretto of K459, whose rising scales are fleet and flowing: at last we realise that this is not a slow movement! More soon, I hope.