ConcertPulse
Mitsuko Uchida / Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Elbphilharmonie, Großer Saal (Hamburg)
Mitsuko Uchida is one of the greatest Mozart interpreters of our time. The Classical composer’s piano concertos form the centrepiece of her collaboration with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with which the Japanese pianist has been closely associated as an »Artistic Partner« since 2016. In their joint programmes, two of Mozart’s 27 piano concertos each frame the work of a different composer. In the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall, the rhythmic 18th and the colourful 21st frame Leoš Janáček’s wind sextet Mládí (»Youth«). Mozart wrote these two piano concertos in the space of just one year. In 1784/1785, the composer in his late 20s was riding a wave of success as one of Vienna’s leading pianists, offering his public ample opportunity to marvel at his skills as a virtuoso and composer. The wind sextet by Czech composer Janáček, on the other hand, can be seen as »a kind of reminiscence of youth«. It was composed in 1924 during a three-week stay in his birthplace Hukvaldy, and looks back on his »youth» on the occasion of his 70th birthday.