BIG Mozart!
I suppose an orchestra of hundreds would be barely powerful enough to play ball with Leif Andsnes, the ruling dynamo of the piano. I hardly know what to say about this performance of quaint little Rococo Amadeus by such a Wehrmacht of music, except that it's maximally polished and acoustically thrilling. Frankly I prefer to hear Andsnes play Brahms and I look forward to his assault on Prokofiev some day. In his favor, he plays these compositions for fortepiano (a different beast from our piano forte) with great sensitivity to the difference of touch that a fortepiano would have provided. Dry, in short. Crisp, with as much music to be heard between the notes as in them. I guess I respect this performance more than I like it. The used price is mighty attractive, and this CD might be a fine introduction to the most athletic pianist in the world today, especially if you are familiar with other recordings of the same music, for comparison.