Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27 | Menahem Pressler, Paavo Järvi & the Orchestre de Paris

Music was his elixir of life: On October 17, 2012, just before his 90th birthday, pianist Menahem Pressler gave a concert in Paris' Salle Pleyel. With the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Paavo Järvi, Pressler played Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K. 595. Nimble fingers even at grand old age – Menahem Pressler is proof that it's possible. The star pianist was able to look back over a 50-year career. Between 1955 and 2008 he was performing some 100 concerts each year with the Beaux Arts Trio alone. Menahem Pressler passed away on May 6, 2023, aged 99.

(00:00) Applause
(00:18) I. Allegro
(14:32) II. Larghetto
(22:54) III. Rondo, Allegro

The Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major (K. 595) is the last of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756 – 1791) piano concertos, of a total of 21. He wrote it in 1791, the year of his death. At its premiere in Vienna, Mozart played the solo part himself – it was to be his final public appearance at the piano. Even though this is the last of Mozart’s piano concertos, the drive to realize new compositional forms is nonetheless still very evident. Echoes of Mozart’s well-known spring composition Komm Lieber Mai… (Longing for the Spring) can be heard in the third movement, the Rondo. Although it's written in a major key, the piece sounds mournful, infused with a sense of yearning. The composer had fallen on hard times and was hoping to acquire some financial security by producing a large body of work.

Soloist Menahem Pressler (1923 – 2023) was born Max Pressler in the German city of Magdeburg. His family is Jewish, and after the Nazis came to power, he fled with his parents in 1939 – initially to Palestine, and then on to the US in 1940. The members of his family who remained behind were murdered by the Nazis. In 1946, the young Pressler won the Debussy International Piano Competition in San Francisco, remaining in California thereafter to continue his studies. He founded the world-renowned Beaux Arts Trio in 1955. The ensemble would go on to created over 50 recordings. Numerous musicians comprised the trio up until its final concert, in 2008. Pressler also performed as a soloist throughout his life.

Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi was musical director of the Orchestre de Paris from 2010 – 2016. Paavo Järvi was born in Tallinn, but emigrated to the US in 1980. For a long time he was musical director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and is still in partnership with the ensemble as its Conductor Laureate. He’s been music director and chief conductor of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich since 2019.

The Orchestre de Paris is one of the largest and most-respected orchestras in the world. Founded in 1967, it has been led by several conducting greats, including Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti and Daniel Barenboim. In 2015, it relocated from the Salle Pleyel to the Philharmonie de Paris in the French capital’s 19th arrondissement.

A production of LGM Télévision
© EuroArts, 2012

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