It’s not often that a concerto recording commands attention primarily through the orchestra and conductor, and secondly because of the soloist. But that’s exactly what happens here. Rarely have Mozart’s last three violin concertos emerged with such pungently colored and sharply articulated orchestral frameworks. In the G major’s first-movement exposition, for example, most conductors soften the strings’ churning 16th-notes in order for the oboes and horns to shine. Olli Mustonen, however, creates a greater sense of urgency and forward drama by letting the strings rip, so to speak. Notice also the tension Mustonen generates through his pinpointed dynamic gradations in the D major’s outer movements, although you might find the central movement’s expressive “hairpins” a bit outsized and artsy. Violin soloist Pekka Kuusisto’s wispy yet penetrating tone, minimum vibrato, and terse, non-virtuosic original cadenzas reinforce the performances’ period-instrument aesthetic and chamber music paradigm.
At the same time, Mozart’s lyrical inspiration demands more tonal heft and sustaining power than Kuusisto is willing to deliver, as in the D major concerto’s slow movement and the A major’s opening movement, at the violin’s hushed entrance following the orchestral tutti. For this reason I’m not willing to forego more “traditional” traversals from Arthur Grumiaux/Colin Davis, Itzhak Perlman/James Levine, or a particularly gorgeous, sweet-toned G major with Franz Peter Zimmerman and Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. All told, this release offers further proof of Olli Mustonen’s increasing podium authority.
