Amazing pieces of classical music - 24
Mozart's Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478: III. Rondo (Allegro), performed by Peter Serkin (piano), Alexander Schneider (violin), Michael Tree (viola), and David Soyer (cello) in 1965. The year thereafter, at age 19, Serkin was awarded the Grammy Award for Most Promising New Classical Recording Artist.
Peter Serkin's recordings of both Mozart Piano Quartets (K. 478 & K. 493) with the Vanguard Everyman Series are still praised these days for its 'Romantic' style, capturing a rather impetuous and spirited approach to the music with excellent chamber playing. While some prefer period instrument recordings, this version is celebrated for its lively energy and emotional depth, serving as a vital counterpoint to more austere performances and offering a unique, vibrant interpretation of the works.
The group "Alexander Schneider and company" made a wonderful series of recordings in the Sixties which explored thus the chamber repertoire for Vanguard. David Soyer and Michael Tree went on to play with the Guarneri String Quartet (1964-2001). Peter Serkin emerged as one of the most brilliant chamber players and contemporary advocates of his generation. But conductor Schneider himself, however, set the original style for the performance which was essentially 'Romantic', a continuation of his own Budapest String Quartet (1917-1967).
Mozart's two piano quartets are highly striking and original works, for even Haydn, that most prolific inventor and developer of musical forms, did not conceive of a piano quartet. They certainly should not be regarded as deformed piano concertos. Serkin's awareness of the music's textures and his ability to make it sparkle, are again to be marveled in this recording, though like most of the recordings at the time sound quality varies enormously and a misplaced microphone near a piano can upset the whole experience somewhat.
Nevertheless, although the pieces themselves were not particularly commercially successful at the time, Mozart caused a great surprise here, for as a reviewer once observed, the tragic in the first movement (Allegro) seems not so much to anticipate the later Romantic piano quartets, but rather to float above them, only to morph into an otherworldly second movement (Andante) like a ghostly search for a more balancing balm. The third movement (Rondo) is quite simple in comparison, but concludes the piece beautifully
[media=https://youtu.be/kkcQK9u5LUI]
Peter Serkin's recordings of both Mozart Piano Quartets (K. 478 & K. 493) with the Vanguard Everyman Series are still praised these days for its 'Romantic' style, capturing a rather impetuous and spirited approach to the music with excellent chamber playing. While some prefer period instrument recordings, this version is celebrated for its lively energy and emotional depth, serving as a vital counterpoint to more austere performances and offering a unique, vibrant interpretation of the works.
The group "Alexander Schneider and company" made a wonderful series of recordings in the Sixties which explored thus the chamber repertoire for Vanguard. David Soyer and Michael Tree went on to play with the Guarneri String Quartet (1964-2001). Peter Serkin emerged as one of the most brilliant chamber players and contemporary advocates of his generation. But conductor Schneider himself, however, set the original style for the performance which was essentially 'Romantic', a continuation of his own Budapest String Quartet (1917-1967).
Mozart's two piano quartets are highly striking and original works, for even Haydn, that most prolific inventor and developer of musical forms, did not conceive of a piano quartet. They certainly should not be regarded as deformed piano concertos. Serkin's awareness of the music's textures and his ability to make it sparkle, are again to be marveled in this recording, though like most of the recordings at the time sound quality varies enormously and a misplaced microphone near a piano can upset the whole experience somewhat.
Nevertheless, although the pieces themselves were not particularly commercially successful at the time, Mozart caused a great surprise here, for as a reviewer once observed, the tragic in the first movement (Allegro) seems not so much to anticipate the later Romantic piano quartets, but rather to float above them, only to morph into an otherworldly second movement (Andante) like a ghostly search for a more balancing balm. The third movement (Rondo) is quite simple in comparison, but concludes the piece beautifully
[media=https://youtu.be/kkcQK9u5LUI]
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