Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 23 Charles Richard-Hamelin, Les Violons du Roy & Jonathan Cohen

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791): Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466:
• 1 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466: I. Allegro 13:44
• 2 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466: II. Romance 08:16
• 3 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466: III. Allegro assai 07:28
• Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488:
• 4 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488: I. Allegro 11:20
• 5 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488: II. Adagio 06:40
• 6 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488: III. Allegro assai 07:55
• Adagio and Fugue in C Minor, K. 546:
• 7 Mozart: Adagio and Fugue in C Minor, K. 546 06:38
• Total Runtime 01:02:01

Info for Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 23

Following a fruitful first collaboration for Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 22 and 24, Charles Richard-Hamelin, Les Violons du Roy and Jonathan Cohen return this time with Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 23. The works on this recording were composed by Mozart between 1783 and 1786, when the musician was approaching an important personal and professional turning point. First, the Concerto in A major, K. 488 , was completed on March 2, 1786, two months before the premiere of The Marriage of Figaro , a work that marks Mozart's return to opera. While Concerto K. 466 is, with Concerto No. 24 , the only one by Mozart in the minor mode, that also coincides with the arrival of his son Karl. The performance of the soloist and of the orchestra complement each other marvellously in these two masterpieces whose contrasts respond to each other magnificently.

Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano
Les Violons du Roy
Jonathan Cohen, conductor

Charles Richard-Hamelin
stands out on the international music scene as a “highly sensitive” pianist (Gramophone), driven by “a great depth of feeling without the slightest condescension” (Le Devoir). He is recognized as “fluent, multifaceted and tonally seductive… a technician of exceptional elegance and sophistication” (BBC Music Magazine).

In 2015, he received the Silver Medal at the International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and the Krystian Zimerman Prize for best performance of a sonata. He also won Second Prize at the Concours musical international de Montréal and Third Prize and the Special Prize for best performance of a Beethoven sonata at the Seoul International Music Competition in South Korea. Charles Richard-Hamelin is in great demand as a guest performer at the world’s greatest classical music festivals, including the International Piano Festival of La Roque d’Anthéron in France, the Prague Spring International Music Festival, the International “Chopin and his Europe” Festival in Warsaw, the Festival International de Lanaudière and the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest. He has worked with renowned conductors, including Kent Nagano, Vasily Petrenko, Jacek Kaspszyk, Aziz Shokhakimov, Peter Oundjian, Jacques Lacombe, Fabien Gabel, Carlo Rizzi, Alexander Prior, Christoph Campestrini, Lan Shui, Jean- Marie Zeitouni, Charles Olivieri-Munroe, Howard Shelley, Antoni Wit and Jonathan Cohen. He has also performed as a soloist with famous orchestras around the world, including the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Québec, Toronto, Edmonton, Warsaw, Singapore and Hiroshima symphony orchestras, as well as the Orchestre Métropolitain, Les Violons du Roy, I Musici de Montréal, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, OFUNAM (Mexico City), the Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra, the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra and Sinfonia Varsovia.

Charles Richard-Hamelin has recorded five albums to this day, all published on the Analekta label. In 2015, he first recorded acclaimed performances of Chopin’s last works. Launched in 2016, his second album brought together works by Beethoven, Enescu and Chopin, recorded in concert at the Palais Montcalm in Quebec City. His discography was then further enriched by two more albums, one devoted to the first part of a complete collection of Beethoven’s violin and piano sonatas, recorded with the concertmaster of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Andrew Wan; the other dedicated to Chopin’s two piano concertos, recorded live in concert at Montréal’s Maison symphonique with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under the direction of Kent Nagano. These albums received awards and enthusiastic reviews from the leading music critics.

Booklet for Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 23