Mozart performance question

[bojendyk]

I'm sort of a classical music neophyte. Yesterday afternoon, my wife and I and some friends saw the Hubbard St. Dance company, and the first piece they did was accompanied by the Adiago from Mozarts piano concerto no. 23 and the Adante from his piano concerto no. 21.

Are there any recommendations as far as performances go? This one (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000004194/sr=8-8/qid=1143473515/ref=sr_1_8/103-0438080-3871003?%5Fencoding=UTF8) was the first I found on amazon. How does it rate?

[sebakoole]

I've never heard that Brendel recording so I can't rate it. For 21 and 23 I have the Ashkenazy (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000041LF/sr=8-2/qid=1143477670/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-2073571-2697551?%5Fencoding=UTF8) and can highly recommend those. But the most beautiful performance of 21 I've ever heard is Mitsuko Uchida (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000040XU/qid=1143477773/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/104-2073571-2697551?s=music&v=glance&n=5174). Her playing of the andante that you mentioned is just out of this world.

[bojendyk]

I've never heard that Brendel recording so I can't rate it. For 21 and 23 I have the Ashkenazy (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000041LF/sr=8-2/qid=1143477670/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-2073571-2697551?%5Fencoding=UTF8) and can highly recommend those. But the most beautiful performance of 21 I've ever heard is Mitsuko Uchida (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000040XU/qid=1143477773/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/104-2073571-2697551?s=music&v=glance&n=5174). Her playing of the andante that you mentioned is just out of this world.

Thanks--I'll go with the Askenazy.

[nicodemus]

I'm sure some classical-ites out there will have a heart attack about me saying this, but it's what I did when I was getting started and it worked for me.

In general the best orchestras in the world are seldom going to disappoint. Sure, there are times the Nashville SO might turn in a better performance than the London SO, but it's much more common for London to come out on top.

Here's a very short and not even close to exhaustive list of orchestras you can typically trust:

London SO
Chicago SO
New York PO
Los Angeles PO
Berlin PO
Montreal SO
City of Birmingham SO
Royal Concertgebouw (Amsterdam)
Cleveland SO
Philadelphia SO
Vienna PO
Gothenburg SO
any of the BBC Orchestras (England, Scotland, Wales)
Royal Philharmonic

If you look for those orchestras on labels like Deutsch Grammaphon, London, Decca, EMI, RCA, Sony, Philips, etc. you're generally pretty safe.

Now, that's not to say that lesser known orchestras and lesser known labels can't upstage the big boys (and it happens often), but there's more or less a certain standard you can expect with those.

If you really start to get into it, subscribe to BBC Music Magazine or Grammaphone UK or buy the Penguin Guide or something like that to pour over the endless choices for each piece.

If you're interested in me giving you lists of conductors, pianists, violinists, cellists, etc. that can typically be "trusted," I'll be happy to do so.