Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia & Mozart

No. 207 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast207

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This week’s installment of Mozart gets my GOAT is another podcast featuring a trio of Amadeus’ piano concertos, but this time featuring a pair of artists as soloists. Why two? Well, because I am featuring the second of two of Mozart’s concertos for more than one keyboard (we featured the concerto for two pianos in our February Podcast Vault selection).

In 1776, Mozart composed three piano concertos, one of which was the Concerto in F for Three Pianos and Orchestra ( his no. 7, K. 242). The concerto is often nicknamed "Lodron" because it was commissioned by Countess Antonia Lodron to be played with her two daughters Aloysia and Giuseppa.

He originally finished it in February 1776 for three pianos; however, when he eventually revised it for himself and another pianist in 1780 in Salzburg, he rearranged it for two pianos, and that is how the piece is performed in our podcast.

As I did for the concerto for two pianos, I chose the recording by Radu Lupu and Murray Perahia, who have recorded two discs together as a duet – the recording of the two concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra, and a second of works for piano four-hands which I discussed in February.

Because I already provided some program notes on Mr. Lupu in another post (from our 2012 pianothon), I will limit my thoughts here to this: although he’s recorded extensively, Mr. Lupu has not left us many recordings of him playing Mozart concertos – other than his collaboration with Mr. Perahia, I found maybe a handful of discs, and one that seems to have been reissued a few times was his recording of a pair of concertos with Uri Segal and the ECO, from which Mr. Lupu’s solo performance today is taken.

Murray Perahia on the other hand, like Mitsuko Uchida a few weeks ago, has recorded the “complete cycle” (his first major recording project for Columbia records with the English Chamber Orchestra) and – like his fellow pianists Vladimir Ashkenazy and Daniel Barenboim, he serves as both pianist and conductor in these recordings.

I think you will love this music too.