Claudio Abbado was near death when he accompanied Martha Argerich in these two concertos, captured live at the Lucerne Festival, but we mustn’t let sentimentality get in the way of an honest assessment of the music making. Rarely a persuasive Mozartean, Abbado offers conducting that is precious, fussy, and overly timid in both works, especially their first movements. Orchestra Mozart, never particularly special as an ensemble, plays the notes accurately, but its relatively faceless woodwinds fail to characterize their (frequent) solo lines, and its overall sonority is gray.
I’m thinking especially of the finale of Concerto No. 20, where comedy is always threatening to erupt until it finally bursts out in the coda, at least theoretically. Or consider the opening movement of No. 25, with its choppy rhythms, exaggerated diminuendos, and lumbering gait. At almost exactly the same tempo, Szell (with Fleischer) has so much more energy, and that performance even sounds better despite being some half a century older. There are so many recordings of these works that feature better orchestras, better sonics, and even better solo playing (consider the reference recording: Végh and Schiff on Decca).
Indeed, something of Abbado’s preciousness seems to have rubbed off on Argerich. Her matchless technique remains firmly in place: the finales of both works, or the minor-key eruption in the Romance of Concerto No. 20, reveal both her sensitivity and virtuosity to fine effect, and her choice of Friedrich Gulda’s cadenza in the first movement of Concerto No. 25 is interesting. Elsewhere, if not exactly mannered, she sounds more than a touch monochromatic and inclined to poke at the music rather than sustain its long, legato lines. It’s certainly not bad playing by any means, but as with Abbado you can’t help but feel that Mozart is not her strongest suit.
Don’t let this be your last experience of Abbado as a conductor. He was capable of so much better, and Argerich, happily, is still with us and hopefully will continue to give us recordings to applaud more enthusiastically.
