Here is Volume Three of Christian Zacharias' series of Mozart Piano Concertos, this release comprising the 17th and 18th concerti, KVs 453 and 456.

The works are masterful, both boasting a delicate, tender blend of comedy and sadness, the unfailingly characterful solo piano lines packaged with beautifully economical, effervescent woodwind and string scoring. The former is at its most magical in the Finale's colourful set of variations, concluding with a comic, buoyant Presto flourish (here presented as a separate track), but both concerti weave a spell, the music's aesthetically ingratiating surface typically only providing a silver lining to tantalizing, deeper human emotions, though only sometimes revealing them explicitly.

Zacharias, here, conducts the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne from the keyboard, and he does so very finely. Not overtly Romantic, these two readings prize most highly purity of ensemble and precision of touch. The orchestra's personable woodwind and genteel strings meld effortlessly with Zacharias' graceful, steady tempi and spherical phrasing, the sound world airy and mystical, yet never distant or hollow. Mozart's music can burst into pre-Romantic fire, and this interpretation, while appreciating the function of dramatic orchestral outbursts, retains clarity of texture throughout, drama conjured subtly rather than ostentatiously. I wonder whether this restraint and refinement can sometimes be structurally damaging: whether the consistent beauty of sound could lose some dramatic contrast between the faster and slower movements. Even if so, doubts cannot linger for long, the music twinkling, ever-changing.

Zacharias' pianism matches the orchestral sound in terms of textural and melodic clarity, his touch spirited yet feather-light, his great technical ability harnessed not to vacuous exhibitionist displays but to supple, organic, understated virtuosity. Semiquaver patterns and alberti bass figurations are tenderly caressed, trills are luminous, dynamics are widely spread and never polarised; Zacharias' rather Romantic view of cadenzas (lots of gentle manipulations of tempo) could seem incongruous in the circumstances, but these solo passages provide emotional release and a sense of improvisatory freedom, while retaining the aural loveliness of their surroundings.

The balance on disc between orchestra and piano is pleasingly homogenous, the recording made in a concert hall's natural acoustic. The whole is wonderful.

Dave Paxton, musicOMH.com

Listing of Works

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17 in D major, K. 453
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 18 in B flat, K. 445