The Performance

After releasing the concertos for piano and orchestra in G major KV 453 and A major KV 488 (CD-No: KuK 77) and the piano concertos in C major KV 467 and D major KV 537 (CD-No: KuK 86), we now present a live recording of two more piano concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composed during his period as a freelance artist in Vienna. Freed from the chains of the archbishop, the most definitive instrumental works originated during this period from 1782 up to his death in 1791.
Mozart composed the concerto in D major KV 451 in the early part of 1784. The premiere occurred at the Burgtheater Vienna on 1st April, 1784. Among other things, the work is characterized by a comparatively large orchestra, especially in the first movement - certainly the largest he ever used in a solo concerto. Mozart dated his piano concerto in D minor KV 466, 10th February, 1785. His father, Leopold, who was staying in Vienna at the time, reported after the premiere: "The concerto was incomparable... the orchestration splendid". The concerto KV 466 quickly advanced to being one of Mozart's most played concertos; the young Beethoven performed and wrote cadences for it, as did Clara Schumann.

Here we have a recording by the pianist, Cristina Marton. A young and sensitive artist, born in 1974 in Temeswar in Romania, she has been decorated with numerous honours in international competitions, such as the Clara Schumann Competition, Düsseldorf; the Mozart Competition, Salzburg; and the Martha Argerich Competition, Buenos Aires. During her career, she has enthusiastically worked with such artists as András Schiff, Radu Lupu and Alfred Brendel.
The varied repertoire of the Wuerttemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, documented by more than 500 recorded works, and numerous international tours with such important soloists as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maurice André, Heinz Holliger, Gidon Kremer, Alfred Brendel, Hilary Hahn and Thomas Quasthoff, bear witness to the high standing of this ensemble and underlines its role as an ambassador for the cultural life of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Furthering the development of young performers is also an essential component of its artistic work.
Ruben Gazarian, the successor to the orchestra‘s founder, Jörg Faerber, can look back on a successful career as a violinist, concert-master and conductor with numerous orchestras and chamber orchestras in Eastern Europe and Germany. Directly before starting his work in Heilbronn, he received, in Frankfurt, the international "Sir George Solti" conductor prize.

The Series

Publishing culture in its authentic form entails for us capturing and recording for posterity outstanding performances and concerts. The performers, audience, opus and room enter into an intimate dialogue that in its form and expression, its atmosphere, is unique and unrepeatable. It is our aim, the philosophy of our house, to enable the listener to acutely experience every facet of this symbiosis, the intensity of the performance. The results are unparalleled interpretations of musical and literary works, simply - audiophile snapshots of permanent value.

The concerts in Maulbronn monastery, which we document with this edition, supply, in many ways, the ideal conditions for our aspirations. It is, above all, the atmosphere of the romantic, candle-lit arches, the magic of the monastery in its unadulterated sublime presence and tranquillity that impresses itself upon the performers and audience of these concerts. Renowned soloists and ensembles from the international arena repeatedly welcome the opportunity to appear here - enjoying the unparalleled acoustic and architectural beauty of this World Heritage Site (monastery church, cloister gardens, lay refectory, etc. ), providing exquisite performances of secular and sacred music.

Under the patronage of the Evangelical Seminar, the Maulbronn Monastery Cloister Concerts were instigated in 1968 with an abundance of musical enthusiasm and voluntary leadership. Within the hallowed walls of the classical grammar and boarding school, existent for more than 450 years, some of society's great thinkers, poets and humanists, such as Kepler, Hölderlin, Herwegh and Hesse received their first impressions. The youthful elan, the constructive participation of the pupils, continuing the tradition of their great predecessors, constructs an enlightened climate in which artistic ambitions can especially thrive. Twenty-five concerts take place between May and September. Their success can be largely attributed to the many voluntary helpers from near and far. There is a break for winter (the monastery is not heated!).

Flourishing culture in a living monument, created for the delight of the live audience and, last but not least, you the listener, are the ideals we document with this series.

Andreas Otto Grimminger & Josef-Stefan Kindler

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1. Start of the concert

Piano Concerto No. 16 in D major KV 451

2. Allegro assai
3. Andante (alla breve)
4. Allegro di molto

Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor KV 466

5. Allegro
6. Romance (alla breve)
7. Allegro assai (alla breve)

Links to the artists' websites:

Wuerttemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn
(german only)