MOZART. Piano Concertos—No. 16 in D major, K451; No.19 in F major, K459. Christian Zacharias (p1); Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra / Sir Neville Marriner. EMI ® (I) CDC7 49982-2 (49 minutes: DDD).

Concerto, K451—selected comparison:

Phi!h, Ashkenazy (7/84) 411 612-213H Concerto, K459—selected comparison:

Philh, Ashkenazy (5/86) 414 433-2DH

Christian Zacharias is a well-proven artist in this repertory. I have always found much to admire in his Mozart concerto recordings, which form part of a cycle, and although he has changed orchestra more than once—and conductor too, for he is not as yet one of those who prefer to direct these works from the keyboard—there is a consistency in these performances, with their crisp and vivid quicker music and an expressive yet unsentimental approach to slow movements and other lyrical writing. Occasionally the pianist has done something mildly eccentric, or jokey, such as interpolating unexpected instrumental (nonpiano) material into cadenzas, but usually we feel in safe hands.

The present issue is no exception to this general rule, and from the opening of the D major Concerto we recognize, too, that he has found a sympathetic partner in Sir Neville Marriner and that the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra is a skilful body of players, though just once or twice I thought its wind section could be neater still. Using a modern instrument with a clean and wellvaried touch and discreet but effective pedalling, Zacharias is persuasively deft and alert in this Allegro and conveys a feeling of delight in brilliant yet sensitive music-making, and while I would have awaited a cadenza of his own with a mixture of curiosity and anxiety (see above), in fact all the cadenzas played here are rightly Mozart's own. Perhaps he is sometimes a little too 'chirpy' where simplicity is called for (e.g. in the first movement of No. 19), but few will want to resist his touch of high spirits in this music; and while the Andante of No. 16 could have been a trace more relaxed in pace, better this than sluggishness, and there is no doubt at all about the agile, happy finales.

The sound is clean and nicely balanced, with enough reverberation for natural warmth, but I did rather miss a true pianissimo. This coupling of Concertos Nos. 16 and 19 is not common, and if you want it you should not be disappointed by the present issue. A good alternative on two different discs is the stylish but slightly more serious Vladimir Ashkenazy with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Decca), the two concertos being coupled with Nos. 15 and 24 respectively. C.H.