Mozart: Piano Concertos No. 21 & No. 27 Lars Vogt

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791): Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467:
• 1Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467: I. Allegro maestoso14:10
• 2Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467: II. Andante06:29
• 3Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467: III. Allegro vivace assai06:26
• Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-Flat Major, K. 595:
• 4Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-Flat Major, K. 595: I. Allegro13:53
• 5Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-Flat Major, K. 595: II. Larghetto07:24
• 6Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-Flat Major, K. 595: III. Rondo. Allegro09:31
• Total Runtime57:53

Info for Mozart: Piano Concertos No. 21 & No. 27

Vienna 1785: „Wolfgang Amadeus would compose in his workroom and music seemed to flow from his pen. Soon he would write the opera Le Nozze di Figaro in these same quarters. He had just put the finishing touches on a new piano concerto: festive C Major, luxurious scoring including trumpets and timpani (K467). It was premièred on 12 March 1785 during one of the so-called “academy” concerts. Leopold, the father, was present and could hardly curb his enthusiasm: “The concerto was sensational, the orchestra first-rate”, he wrote to his daughter. He was also impressed by the music’s sheer technical difficulty: “Here, the pianist truly has something to keep his hands moving: one has to concede that this new concerto is surprisingly difficult”. However, this is not a work where Mozart lay particular emphasis on virtuoso aplomb; rather, the C-Major-Concerto draws its energy from “cheerful, open-hearted joy”, as Lars Vogt puts it, “at least in the outer movements. The middle movement, the well-known Andante, seems to contain a vision of paradise – this is an absolutely moving piece of music, provided one manages to create the illusion that it emerges out of nothingness”. Here, once more, we have the ingenious “Mozart Effect”: a beauty plain and simple, without ever descending into vulgarity. … When he was working on the first movement cadenza, his daughter – then four years old – was attempting to conquer the piano keys. A short little melody emerged from her first attempts, “and I incorporated it into my cadenza, concealing it at one point in the left-hand part”.

Vienna 1791: “Piano Concerto K595 in B Flat Major is from 1791, the last year of Mozart’s life. Long gone were those blissful days in the lovely Domgasse quarters. Mozart’s star was shining less brightly now, and luxury had to be curbed. Vienna had laid at his feet, now it had found new favorites. Mozart was no longer able to finance his “academy” concerts from his own pocket. The only musical commissions he received in early 1791 were a few meagre tasks including a series of dances for court ballrooms. But Mozart nevertheless finished writing his Concerto in B Flat Major. Whether it was performed by the composer or by a female pupil remains unknown: our most important biographical source, the lively correspondence with his father, had run dry four years earlier. “For me, this concerto is tinged with melancholy through and through. One can tell that this is his last piano concerto – even in the supposedly cheerful themes, as in the last movement. The mood becomes increasingly con spirito”. Thus, Lars Vogt attempts here to explore the mood of “crying while laughing”, since the piano part foregoes any sort of finery or aplomb. “It draws its energy from inner expression”. The orchestration is also less flamboyant: Mozart leaves out the timpani and trumpets this time....“ (Excerpt from the liner notes)

Lars Vogt, piano
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Järvi, conductor

Lars Vogt
has rapidly established himself as one of the leading pianists of his generation. Born in the German town of Düren in 1970, he first came to public attention when he won second prize at the 1990 Leeds International Piano Competition and has enjoyed a varied career for over twenty years. His versatility as an artist ranges from the core classical repertoire of Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms to the romantics Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov through to the dazzling Lutoslawski concerto. A keen chamber musician, Lars Vogt is now increasingly working with orchestras both as conductor and directing from the keyboard.

Lars Vogt opened the 2012/13 season performing the Lutoslawski Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Moest at the Edinburgh Festival. He returns to the Cleveland Orchestra later in the season and additional North American appearances feature the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and a recital at the Y in New York. Other highlights of the season include concerts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus under Riccardo Chailly, two appearances in Paris with the Orchestre de Paris under Herbert Blomstedt and with the Orchestre National under Kurt Masur, and the conclusion of his residency with the Netherlands Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw Hall in Amsterdam. He also appears with Vienna Radio Symphony, NDR Hamburg, Swedish Radio, Brussels Philharmonic and the Liceu Opera Orchestra, Barcelona. In the UK he performs Beethoven concerti with the London Philharmonic under Christoph Eschenbach, London Symphony under Daniel Harding and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons.

During the 2011/12 season Lars Vogt made several appearances in North America, performing with orchestras in Toronto, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Seattle and undertaking an extensive tour with Christian Tetzlaff to New York, Philadelphia and other major cities. Concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra featured prominently both with Vladimir Jurowski in London and on tour in the UK and Germany with Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Other concerto engagements included the New Japan Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Rotterdam Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Spain and orchestras in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Milan, Florence and Copenhagen. Recital appearances featured the International Piano Series in London and the Konzerthaus, Vienna.

Lars Vogt’s special relationship with the Berlin Philharmonic has continued with regular collaborations following his appointment as their first ever “Pianist in Residence” in 2003/4. He has also worked with many other German orchestras including Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bayerische Rundfunk, Frankfurt Radio, Dresden Staatskapelle, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Guerzenich Cologne and Deutscheskammerphilharmonie Bremen. Other highlights over recent seasons have included many appearances at the BBC Proms and a residency at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg with the Vienna Philharmonic/Christoph Eschenbach and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Daniel Harding; as well as appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, NHK Symphony, London Symphony, Philharmonia, Royal Concertgebouw, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Swedish Radio, Finnish Radio, Czech Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris.

Lars Vogt enjoys a high profile as a chamber musician and recent appearances have included London, Paris, Munich, Madrid, Rome and New York. In June 1998 he founded his own festival in Heimbach, Germany. Known as “Spannungen”, its huge success has been marked by the release of ten live recordings on EMI. He enjoys regular partnerships with colleagues such as Christian Tetzlaff and Thomas Quasthoff and collaborates occasionally with actor Klaus-Maria Brandauer and comedian Konrad Beikircher. In 2005 he founded “Rhapsody in School” which has become a high profile education project across Germany. Lars Vogt is also an accomplished and enthusiastic teacher and was recently appointed Professor of Piano at the Hannover Conservatory of Music, succeeding Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, his teacher and close friend who died in June 2012.

As an EMI recording artist, Lars Vogt made fifteen discs for the label, including the Hindemith Kammermusik No 2 with the Berlin Philharmonic/Claudio Abbado, the Schumann, Grieg and the first two Beethoven Concertos with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle, who has described him as "one of the most extraordinary musicians of any age group that I have had the fortune to be associated with". Recent recordings include solo Schubert for CAvi-music and Mozart Concerti with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra for Oehms, a solo Liszt and Schumann disc on the Berlin Classics label and Mozart Sonatas with Christian Tetzlaff for Ondine.

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