Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20, KV 466 & 22, KV 482

Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20, KV 466 & 22, KV 482, the 16th volume in the Orpheum Foundation's Next Generation Mozart Soloists edition pairs rising pianist Marie-Ange Nguci with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg under Howard Griffiths for two of Mozart's most emotionally charged piano concertos: the stormy D minor Concerto, KV 466 — his first in a minor key, and a work that gazes forward toward Romanticism — and the warmer, clarinet-colored E-flat major Concerto, KV 482, composed later that same year, 1785. Both cadenzas come from towering 19th-century figures: Beethoven for the first movement of KV 466, Hummel for the finale of KV 466 and throughout KV 482. Since 1990, the Swiss Orpheum Foundation has paired exceptional young soloists with major orchestras and conductors, and this recording continues that mission under the artistic guidance of Griffiths, who likens performing Mozart to "looking in a mirror" — every flaw of intonation, phrasing, or musicality instantly exposed. Albanian-born Nguci, a Paris Conservatoire alumna who also trained as a conductor, brings that unguarded clarity to two works written during Mozart's most fertile Viennese years, when he supported himself through the subscription concerts that made him, briefly, the toast of the city.

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Marie-Ange Nguci, Piano Mozarteumorchester Salzburg Howard Griffiths, Conductor