Yeol Eum Son / Academy of St Martin in the Fields / Sir Neville Marriner MOZART

A double Second Prize winner at the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in 2011 (To my ears she gave the more exciting interpretation of the mandatory Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto: a blistering reading that left me gasping.

I would have given her gold, not silver’ The Times, London) and at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, Yeol Eum Son’s graceful interpretations, crystalline touch and versatile, thrilling performances have caught the attention of audiences worldwide.

Praised for her widely eclectic concerti repertoire, ranging from Bach and all Mozart to Shchedrin and Gershwin, her recent concerto highlights include appearances with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Mikko Franck, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, Seoul Philharmonic and a European tour with KBS Symphony Orchestra.

In the 2017-18 season, Yeol Eum makes her UK debuts in Birmingham with the CBSO (Mozart Piano Concerto No 21) and London’s Cadogan Hall with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 8 & 21) on 20 April.

This recording was the last made by Sir Neville Marriner. (Presto Classical)

  

“Conductor Neville Marriner’s final album before his death is full of wit and vitality. Under his inspiring leadership, pianist Yeol Eum Son shines in Mozart’s late Piano Concerto No. 21, playing with a forensic attention to detail and revelling in the smallest gestures while the orchestra responds exquisitely to every nuance. The stunning second movement Andante, with its subtle changes in mood, is utterly radiant, while the final Allegro, each note a sparkling jewel, emerges as a slice of musical perfection.” (Apple Music)

Ingrid Jacoby / Academy of St. Martin in the Fields / Sir Neville Marriner MOZART Piano Concertos 17 K453 - 20 K466 - 1 K37

Elegance and energy characterise this account of K453, Ingrid Jacoby especially attractive to listen to in her fluid and dynamic playing, crispy phrased and also affectionate without losing the Concerto’s bigger picture, and most attentively accompanied by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Sir Neville Marriner. Separating such lively music-making (the playful and ultimately witty Finale brings a smile), the soulful slow movement is particularly eloquent with some very expressive contributions from woodwind soloists, and Jacoby digs deep into the music’s potential.

The minor-key K466 is given a spacious and somewhat severe reading, emotionally intense too, which works well in creating a darkly dramatic atmosphere and, in purely musical terms, there are numerous examples of well-observed integration between pianist and orchestra: one senses that Marriner is being artless to both parties. The romance of the slow movement is nicely phrased, a yearning quality evinced, and the stormy middle section raises the ante. The Finale, returning to the mood of the opening movement, if faster, is tensely driven.

K37 is the work of a composer not yet in his teens, and like its three Piano Concerto successors (K39-41) Mozart makes use of others’ instrumental Sonatas. It’s a really attractive piece, the first movement (after Hermann Friedrich Raupach) leaps exuberantly off the page with a brilliance worthy of Domenico Scarlatti. Following which the richly communicative slow movement seems to be entirely a Mozartean original, while the dashing Finale is in debt to Leontzi Honauer. Very early Mozart, yes, but K37 as performed here is well-worth discovering.

Cadenzas: in No.17 Jacoby plays Mozart’s and does so stylishly; in No.20, rather than employ Beethoven’s, which are often chosen, she includes her own based on those by Paul Badura-Skoda; and in No.1 Lili Kraus is the author.

This altogether-excellent release is complemented by first-rate recorded sound engineered by Tony Faulkner, notable for exemplary balance, tonal fidelity and a tangibility that takes us to the heart of the music-making.

Hai-Kyung Suh / Academy of St. Martin In The Fields / Sir Neville Marriner MOZART Piano Concertos 19 - 20 - 21 - 23

Hai-Kyung Suh transfixes audiences with her passionate musicality and dramatic expressiveness rarely seen (Asahi Shimbun, Japan) and her hair-raising virtuosity (Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin) having resoundingly made the difficult transition from prodigy to self-confident Old Master (New York Concert Review). Ms Suh endures as one of the most sublime interpreters of 19th century virtuoso piano repertoire and the classic works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms and Rachmaninoff.
A soloist of international acclaim, Ms. Suh has toured as a recitalist in Germany, Australia, Japan, China, and the U.S., appearing yearly at Lincoln Center in New York City, as she continues annual tours in Korea.
The Juilliard School-educated pianist has also toured with the world's most celebrated orchestras, appeared on television and radio, and is also an established recording artist. She was also invited to perform with the Three Tenors at their concert in Seoul.

Lucas & Arthur Jussen MOZART Double Piano Concertos

‘It is like driving a pair of BMWs’ remarked conductor Michael Schønwandt, after directing the Dutch brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen. Despite their young age, they have been taking part in the international concert world for years. Whether they perform as a duo or as soloists, Lucas and Arthur are praised by both the press and audience. 

Lucas and Arthur received their first piano lessons from Leny Bettman in their native town of Hilversum. In 2001, Lucas (1993) reached the finale of the Three-day Rotterdam Piano Festival and in 2004, Arthur (1996) was chosen as ‘Young Musical Talent of the Year’ at the National Contest of the Young Musical Talent Foundation. In 2005, the brothers studied in Portugal and Brazil for nearly a year at the invitation of Portuguese master pianist Maria João Pires. In the following years they took lessons from both Pires and two renowned Dutch teachers: Piano pedagogue Jan Wijn took them under his wing, and with Ton Hartsuiker they broadened their knowledge of 20th-century music. In 2011, Lucas and Arthur received the first ever Concertgebouw Young Talent Award, and in 2013 they won the Audience Award of the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Lucas and Arthur have performed with nearly all Dutch orchestras, among which the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Rotterdam and The Hague Philharmonic orchestras, and the Radio Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra. They have also performed with acclaimed international orchestras, among others the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, MDR Sinfonie Orchester and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. They have worked with conductors for example Jaap van Zweden, Claus Peter Flor, Elihu Inbal, Jan Willem de Vriend, Stéphane Denève, James Gaffigan, Sir Neville Marriner and Frans Brüggen. Moreover, they have collaborated with several renowned musicians such as Chinese star pianist Lang Lang, with whom Lucas shared the stage during the Prinsengracht Concert in Amsterdam in 2006. In October 2013, Lucas and Arthur performed the world première of Together, a work for two pianos written for them especially by Theo Loevendie.

Besides their orchestral concerts, the brothers are also known and celebrated for their recitals. They performed in both the Master Pianists and Robeco series of the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam) and have performed for the former Dutch queen Beatrix on several occasions. In 2014, Lucas and Arthur accompanied Dutch king Willem-Alexander and queen Maxima on their first official visit to Poland. They have performed in most concert halls in the Netherlands and have given recitals in concert halls and festivals across Europe, such as the Herkulessaal (Munich), Schloss Elmau, Rheingau Music Festival and the famous Festival de Piano de La Roque d'Anthéron. International tours also brought them beyond Europe to Japan (2012), China (2013) and South Korea (2014).

In 2010, Lucas and Arthur signed a record deal with Deutsche Grammophon. Their debut CD with works by Beethoven received platinum status and was awarded the Edison Klassiek Publieksprijs (audience award). After a successful Schubert recording (gold status), they dedicated their third CD Jeux to French piano music, with works by Fauré, Ravel and Poulenc. In October 2015, their fourth CD will be released on which they perform Mozart’s piano concertos KV365 and KV242, together with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, under the baton of Sir Neville Marriner. 

In the 2015/2016 season, Lucas and Arthur will perform several concerts in the Netherlands, as well as recitals in Germany, Japan, Korea, Russia and Mexico. Moreover, they will return to The Hague Philharmonic Orchestra, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and the South Netherlands Philharmonic. This season, Arthur will also undertake a tour through the Netherlands and Europe with the Netherlands Student Orchestra, conducted by Bas Wiegers. Lucas is artist-in-residence at the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. 

Lucas studied with Menahem Pressler in the US and Dmitri Bashkirov at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, where he was presented with the prize for ‘Best piano trio school year 2013/2014’ by the Spanish queen Sofia. Arthur studies with Jan Wijn at the Amsterdam Conservatory.

Rachel Barton Pine / Academy os St Martin in the Fields / Sir Neville Marriner MOZART Complete Violin Concertos

2014 marked the 90th birthday of Sir Neville Marriner, whose experience and instinct for Mozart here gels with the artistry of the 40-year-old Chicago-born violinist Rachel Barton Pine. All five of Mozart’s violin concertos were composed during the 1770s while he was still in his teens, possibly for himself to perform since at the time he was recognised more as a violinist than as the keyboard player he soon became.

If the concertos have sometimes been underrated simply because of their early provenance, Barton Pine, in league with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the ever-stylish Marriner, reveals that there are subtleties alongside the grace and exuberance that render the music endlessly fascinating and appealing.

Barton Pine’s tone is pure, unadulterated by any extraneous affectation, and is ideally matched to the music’s lucid and chamber-like discourse; she plays her own, tastefully tailored cadenzas, since Mozart and his contemporaries extemporised their cadenzas and wrote nothing down. In the Sinfonia concertante K364 she is partnered by the equally sensitive, again Chicago-born viola-player Matthew Lipman, still in his early 20s and gifted with poise and a warmth of timbre that ideally complement the allure of the set as a whole. (The Telegraph)

Sir Neville Marriner / Academy of St. Martin in the Fields MOZART Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - PACHELBEL Canon - L. MOZART "Toy" Symphony

Sir Neville Marriner here collects a miscellaneous group of popular classical and Baroque pieces in characteristically polished and elegant performances. The only roughness – and that deliberate – is in the extra toy percussion of Leo­pold Mozart’s Cassation, with its long- misattributed Toy Symphony. The anonymous extra soloists enjoy themselves as amateurs might, not least on a wind machine, but what’s very hard to take is the grotesquely mismatched cuckoo-whistle, an instrument which should readily be tunable. 

Eine kleine Nachtmusik brings a performance plainly designed to caress the ear of traditional listeners wearied with period performance. The second-movement Romanze is even more honeyed than usual on muted strings. The oddity of the Pachelbel item is that the celebrated Canon – taken unsentimentally if sweetly at a flowing speed – is given a reprise after the Gigue. The recording is warm and well balanced. (Gramophone)

Sir Neville Marriner / Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields MOZART Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - PACHELBEL Canon - L. MOZART "Toy" Symphony

Sir Neville Marriner here collects a miscellaneous group of popular classical and Baroque pieces in characteristically polished and elegant performances. The only roughness – and that deliberate – is in the extra toy percussion of Leo­pold Mozart’s Cassation, with its long- misattributed Toy Symphony. The anonymous extra soloists enjoy themselves as amateurs might, not least on a wind machine, but what’s very hard to take is the grotesquely mismatched cuckoo-whistle, an instrument which should readily be tunable. 

Eine kleine Nachtmusik brings a performance plainly designed to caress the ear of traditional listeners wearied with period performance. The second-movement Romanze is even more honeyed than usual on muted strings. The oddity of the Pachelbel item is that the celebrated Canon – taken unsentimentally if sweetly at a flowing speed – is given a reprise after the Gigue. The recording is warm and well balanced. (Gramophone)