Say's vocals say too much

By WILLIAM DART


These days, when your corner CD shop might have a box set of complete Mozart concertos by any one of a half-a-dozen soloists, it is doubly significant what concertos are chosen when a pianist releases a single-disc entry in the field.

Turkish pianist Fazil Say certainly gives minutes for money on his new Naive release, partnered by the Zurich Chamber Orchestra under Howard Griffiths.

Along with the familiar beauties of K467 and K488, there's the earlier A major concerto of K414, with a parting Rondo that could have done service in Figaro.

Say's sometimes wild style is not for everyone, accompanying his playing with an atonal vocal descant I found intensely irritating. Among other annoyances is the cheap and silly cadenza he has fashioned for the first movement of K467 which suggests that a moratorium is overdue on chirpy grace notes.

The most enjoyment for me came with the other A major concerto of K488, when producer Jean-Martial Golaz brings the woodwind forward and lets us immerse ourselves in their sonorities. The elegiac Adagio would be among the most touching I have heard, were it not for Say's vocal indulgences.

On EMI, Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes gives us two concertos, the early Jeunehomme of K271 and the later, brilliant K456. Both highlight the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra's exemplary playing.

There's no fooling with cadenzas - all are Mozart's and exquisitely played. But then sample any of the six movements to have an object lesson in what articulation and a feeling for Mozartian line are. Even in the boisterous hunting finale of the K456, the Norwegian pianist never loses his stylistic composure.

Andsnes' impact on the orchestral side comes out over and over in delightful and unexpected touches. When the main theme returns in the first movement of 271, it is answered by string soloists, not the full orchestral strings.

Later on, the opening instrumental of K456's slow movement has acquired some delicate, whispered horn notes that certainly aren't in my Mozart Barenreiter edition.

Let us hope that the next instalment has many more such discoveries and insights.

* Fasil Say: Mozart Concertos (Naïve V 4992, through Elite Imports);

Leif Ove Andsnes: Mozart Concertos (EMI 57803)