Mozart in Salzburg
Leif Ove Andsnes, Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra continue their collaborative exploration of Mozart’s great piano concertos and their surroundings. This large-scale project is receiving acclaim in the most prestigious concert halls as well as award-winning results in the recording studio. In the Great Hall of the Mozarteum, attention is now focused on works composed in 1785/86 that are characterized by ambiguous twilight and expressive instability: It begins with the great E-flat major Piano Concerto KV 482 with its heartbreaking Andante in C minor, a set of variations that had to be repeated at the premiere; carries over to the carries over to the “Prague Symphony,” which evokes the juxtaposition of D major and D minor found in “Don Giovanni”; and concludes with the singularly plaintive chromaticism of the C minor Piano Concerto, KV 491 – all testaments to Mozart as arguably the first Romantic composer.