Stephen Pritchard 

Franz Xaver Mozart and Clementi: Piano Concertos CD review – out of his father’s shadow

Howard Shelley (piano, director), Sinfonieorchester St Gallen(Hyperion)
  
  

Pianist Howard Shelley.
Pianist Howard Shelley. Photograph:

Poor Franz Xaver Mozart. Always in the shadow of his famous father, this precocious pianist struggled to make a significant career, even when billing himself “WA Mozart Jnr” on endless European concert tours. His first piano concerto, from 1809, is a homage to Mozart senior’s Viennese concertos; bursting with sparkling pianism and delightful, lyrical themes, it could almost be an exercise in clever pastiche. The second, however, is more distinctly his own; noble and broad in conception with some bravura writing for the soloist, engagingly played here by the admirable Howard Shelley.

 

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