
Finghin Collins's discs for Claves in its survey of Schumann's piano music were very impressive, but it's much harder for him to create such a positive impression with these Mozart concertos. He conducts what is presumably a very much reduced RTE National Symphony Orchestra from the keyboard, and the performances have a regulation, modern-instrument, small-band feel; rhythms are taut, textures light, the dovetailing between soloist and accompaniment neat. What it lacks is the distinctiveness, the sense of a very individual response, that was so characteristic of Collins's Schumann. His sense of style is exemplary; there's nothing out of place. But there's nothing special, whether in the D minor K466 and E flat major K482, or in the less-often heard C major K415 and B flat K456. And this is music that demands something special.
