Mozart: Piano Concertos Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Manchester Camerata & Gábor Takács-Nagy

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791): Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453:
• 1 Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453: Ia. Allegro - 09:52
• 2 Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453: Ib. Cadenza (By Bavouzet) 02:45
• 3 Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453: IIa. Andante - 07:30
• 4 Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453: IIb. Cadenza (By Bavouzet) 02:16
• 5 Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453: III. Allegretto 07:56
• Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-Flat Major, K. 456:
• 6 Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-Flat Major, K. 456: I. Allegro vivace 11:33
• 7 Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-Flat Major, K. 456: II. Andante un poco sostenuto 10:16
• 8 Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-Flat Major, K. 456: III. Allegro vivace 07:23
• Divertimento in B-Flat Major, K. 137 "Salzburg Symphony No. 2":
• 9 Divertimento in B-Flat Major, K. 137 "Salzburg Symphony No. 2": I. Andante 05:26
• 10 Divertimento in B-Flat Major, K. 137 "Salzburg Symphony No. 2": II. Allegro di molto 02:31
• 11 Divertimento in B-Flat Major, K. 137 "Salzburg Symphony No. 2": III. Allegro assai 02:05
• Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453 (Excerpt):
• 12 Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453 (Excerpt): I. Cadenza [Original] 02:14
• 13 Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453 (Excerpt): II. Cadenza [Original] 02:26
• Total Runtime 01:14:13

Info for Mozart: Piano Concertos

After demonstrating their ‘innate love and understanding of Haydn’s music in performances of the expected vivacity and insight’ (BBC Music – CHAN 10808), Bavouzet and Takács-Nagy, the latter conducting his Manchester Camerata, now explore Mozart’s extraordinarily prolific year 1784 in this new series.

Two of the six concertos composed that year are heard here, each unusual for having been written by Mozart for another pianist and for featuring a central Andante, instead of the more common Adagio.

This is a unique version that, as Bavouzet stresses in his booklet note, ‘although played unequivocally on modern instruments, contrasts with those versions made not so very long ago, which used a large orchestra incorporating sixteen violins and eight double-basses’. He adds: ‘a versions which also will take into account a number of performing practices current in Mozart’s time, such as the use of a solo quartet to accompany certain well-defined passages in which the piano is predominant. A version which in one way or another aims to link tradition and modernity.’

“...With Mozart, there’s nowhere to hide: every note is out in the open. Bavouzet casts magic over the orchestra’s background accompaniment with his faultless, seamless execution of passagework and his exquisite phrasing of melodies. The soloist blends harmoniously with the Manchester Camerata, and conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy clearly breathes the same musical lines as the pianist...” - Essential - (Marius Dawn, Pianist magazine)

“... There’s splendid playing from both Bavouzet and the Manchester Camerata under Gábor Takacs-Nagy ...” (Misha Donat, BBC Music magazine)

"... this is a sheer delight and leaves you wondering which way Bavouzet will turn next in his cycle - and when." (David Threasher, Gramophone magazine)

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano
Manchester Camerata
Gábor Takács- Nagy, conductor

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
He makes you listen to music as if you are discovering it Eureka!-style: yes, that’s what the composer must have meant.” (Financial Times).

Award-winning pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet enjoys a prolific recording and international concert career. He regularly works with orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and NHK Symphony orchestras, and collaborates with conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Jurowski, Gianandrea Noseda, François- Xavier Roth, Nicholas Collon, Gábor Takács-Nagy and Sir Andrew Davis amongst others.

Highlights during the 2018/19 season include the Lincoln Center in New York with the London Philharmonic under Edward Gardner, Orchestre national de Lyon, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, a Debussy focus with the Antwerp Symphony, his continuing collaboration with Manchester Camerata including an extensive tour of China as well as performances with Sapporo Symphony, Seoul and Taiwan philharmonic orchestras. Following his highly successful extended Debussy recital at the Barbican’s Milton Court and the 2018 Perth International Arts Festival, Jean-Efflam will present this programme at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. Other recitals include a return to the Louvre, Wigmore Hall – both in solo recital and in collaboration with Kristóf Baráti and István Várdai, as well as a number of recitals in the U.K., Germany and Belgium. He will also return to the Verbier Festival in 2019.

Recent performances include the San Francisco Symphony, Aspen Festival, and Seattle, NHK and BBC symphony orchestras. He also appeared at the Philharmonie de Paris with Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and Kazuki Yamada, BBC Proms performing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Nicholas Collon, Carnegie Hall, as part of a major North American tour together with the London Philharmonic under Vladimir Jurowski, as well as hr-Sinfonieorchester under Juraj Valčuha, Les Siécles and François-Xavier Roth which included concerts at London’s Royal Festival Hall and the Granada Festival.

Bavouzet records exclusively for Chandos and his recording of Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Bergen Philharmonic under Edward Gardner has been nominated for the Concerto category of the 2018 Gramophone Awards. Together with Manchester Camerata and Gábor Takács-Nagy, Bavouzet has recorded several of Haydn’s Piano Concertos and embarked on a series of Mozart concertos, which have been critically acclaimed. His complete Prokofiev Piano Concertos with BBC Philharmonic and Gianandrea Noseda won the Concerto category of the 2014 Gramophone Awards. Other recordings include the complete Beethoven Sonatas, Bartók’s Piano Concerto’s with the BBC Philharmonic and Noseda, and Stravinsky’s Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra with Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo under Yan-Pascal Tortelier. Also with Tortelier, Bavouzet’s recording of the Ravel Piano concertos with the BBC Symphony Orchestra won both a Gramophone and BBC magazine award. Bavouzet’s recordings have garnered other Gramophone Awards and BBC Music Magazine Awards, a Diapason d’Or and Choc de l’année. Ongoing recording projects include the Haydn Piano Sonata cycles.

Bavouzet has worked closely with Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Kurtág, Maurice Ohana and Bruno Mantovani and is also a champion of lesser-known French music, notably that of Gabriel Pierné and Albéric Magnard. He is the International Chair in Piano at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Booklet for Mozart: Piano Concertos