Eloquence has reissued some of Géza Anda’s 1960s Mozart concerto cycle in individual, budget priced installments. Anda was the first pianist to record all 27 Mozart concertos while conducting from the keyboard, as Barenboim, Perahia, and Ashkenazy would do during the following decade. It’s a tradition that allows for a genuine chamber-like give and take between soloist and orchestra. One wonders, though, if a full-time podium presence would have secured finer-grained ensemble playing, less scrawny string tuttis, and better woodwind intonation. What’s more, you’ll encounter more emotional intensity and poetic inflection from the superb Brendel/Mackerras K. 466, and more fluid, imaginative readings of both works by Richard Goode and Orpheus. Anda, though, commands an extraordinary knack for adjusting his silver-etched sonority to blend in with the varied orchestral choirs like a pianistic Zelig. His cadenzas are convincingly stylish, though not as striking as Robert Levin’s eerily authentic improvised ones. Yet it’s odd that Anda doesn’t throw in a little flourish to introduce the piano in K. 467’s vivacious finale: virtually everyone else does. The original Deutsche Grammophon engineering is close up and lifelike and weathers its vintage well, which is more than I can say for Anda’s good but not outstanding performances.
