A sense of balance

By WILLIAM DART

For many, Alfred Brendel defined the Mozart piano concerto in his 1970s recordings with conductor Neville Marriner, so much so that Philips reissued them in 1991 as part of its complete Mozart collection.

Brendel, one of the more intellectually searching of contemporary pianists, has been revisiting these works with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Sir Charles Mackerras and their latest CD couples the Jeunehomme Concerto of K 271 with the glorious C major work of K 503.

The increased spaciousness of the sound, recorded last year in Edinburgh's Usher Hall, goes without saying, but it is the special chemistry between the Scottish players and the often whimsical soloist that illuminates the music.

It's there in the way that he counterpoints above the dramatic orchestral surges of K 271's slow movement, or leaps into the fray for the Finale of K 503, with all the exquisite modulation of line that is Brendel's trademark.

The finely-balanced dialogue between pianist and woodwind in the rapturous second subject of this movement is awe-inspiring and Brendel's sense of humour comes through in his own Cadenza for the first movement of K 503, with its teasing references to La Marseillaise.

In 1985 the pianist summarised the challenge of playing Mozart as finding a balance between freshness and urbanity, force and transparency, unaffectedness and irony, aloofness and intimacy, between freedom and set patterns, passion and grace, abandonment and style. That he and his colleagues have achieved all of these in this CD is a measure of its success.

* A triple-CD set in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Australian Heritage series featuring pianist Noel Mewton-Wood is worth searching out. Like our own Richard Farrell, Mewton-Wood's career was cut short when the pianist committed suicide in 1953 at the age of 31. But a solid core of recordings survives.

The earliest track here has the 18-year-old Australian accompanying a 13-year-old Ida Haendel in a sprightly romp through the Beethoven G major sonata Op. 30 No 3. A dozen years later, a more tempered youthfulness has no qualms about bringing the spirit of the circus into the final movement of Shostakovich's First Concerto.

There are lost opportunities - where is the mysterious 1950 account of Schumann's Davidsbundlertanze? However, a private recording of Schumann's Kinderscenen is remarkable for its momentum, forthrightness and eschewing of any sentimentality. The set ends with a well-placed reissue of a 1952 recording of two Michael Tippett works performed with tenor Peter Pears. In the context of this recording, Boyhoods End is particularly moving. Only one question remains: when will someone pay a similar tribute to Richard Farrell?

* Mozart, Alfred Brendel with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Sir Charles Mackerras (Philips 07863-67008). Noel Mewton-Wood: The Legendary Recordings (ABC Classics, ABC 461 900-2).