For surface beauty and total professionalism you cannot go wrong with these performances, or with any others from Vladimir Ashkenazy’s Mozart Concerto cycle for that matter. While the K. 503 and K. 595 concertos benefit from Ashkenazy’s tasteful, cultivated keyboard contributions, I miss the finely honed ensemble give and take that distinguishes other versions led from the piano by Murray Perahia and Geza Anda. Similarly, Richard Goode’s K. 595 with Orpheus, and either of Ivan Moravec’s K. 503 recordings score over Ashkenazy for pungent woodwind detail, rhythmic vivacity, enlivening inflections of phrase, and dramatic profile. In addition, Decca’s resonant sonics sometimes blur rapid figurations like the ones in K. 503’s finale. All told, a pleasant, uneventful, and somewhat bland release.
