Leif Ove Andsnes - Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 9 & 18 (2004)

Punk Mozart? Surely, you jest. And yet here it is: spiky, angular, and hard as a shiv, Leif Ove Andsnes' performances of Mozart's Jeunehomme and Piano Concertos in B flat major with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra cuts to the quick of the music and reveals Wolfgang in leather and chains.
And, amazingly enough, it works. Andsnes is the tough-guy Norwegian pianist who has turned in recordings of juiced-up Chopin, punched-up Prokofiev, and even gnarly Grieg, and made it work every time because he has the strength, the technique, and the charisma to pull it off. And he does it again here with Mozart. Andsnes plays the notes, all the notes, and nothing but the notes, and yet the energy and integrity Andsnes pours into his playing goes above and beyond the notes to the purity of line, clarity of structure, and inevitability of tempo that is the essence of all great music. Andsnes' Mozart is spiky but the dynamics are Mozart's. Andsnes is angular but the geometry is Mozart's. Andsnes is hard as a shiv because, above and beyond the elegant loveliness of the surface, Mozart's music is the essence of purity, clarity, and inevitability. EMI's sound is clear but not quite clear enough, and just a little too harsh at the upper end.