Pianist Jeremy Denk is the closest thing classical music has to a public intellectual in his native U.S., with his booklet notes to this live performance offering an excellent example. Technical and yet personal, they provide a kind of play-by-play to the interpretations offered here, which are quite detailed and yet lively. Although the recording was made before the coronavirus reared its ugly receptors, it was released in 2021, and Denk alludes to the periodic and seemingly random C minor shades in the big C major opening movement of the Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503, as suggesting that we now "have to live with uncertainty." As it happens, details of this kind are where Denk excels. One might disagree with him along the way; the tempo shifts in the finale of the Piano Concerto in D minor, K. 466, push the Mozartian language to its limits, but his ideas are well-formed enough that he tends to sweep the listener along with him. He is aided here by the fact that he is conducting the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard in a performance that is unusually well-integrated between soloist and orchestra. Nonesuch retains some of the enthusiastic applause in its live sound, which is clear. This recording has made classical sales charts in Britain, where the reputation of this unique musician appears to be spreading.
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