What a wonder Mozart is.
Two concertos in B flat K.450 and 456 so different but so similar in their almost operatic sense of depth and charm ,easy elegance and sublime beauty.
A clarity of sound that both pianists brought to these concertos with a simplicity that allowed the music to unfold so naturally.
The Roma 3 Orchestra that artistic director Valerio Vicari has been nurturing with such loving care since it’s creation 15 years ago playing with such spontaneity and character under the excellent baton of Sieva Borzak.

The rhythmic precision of Filippo Tenisci with an almost chiselled cantabile of poignant beauty in K 450 was complimented by the subtle shading and nuances of Francesco Grano in K 456.With Sieva Borzak incorporating his splendid musicians into a chamber ensemble listening so carefully and responding to his every indication.

This of course must lead to the final concerto K.595 the 27th and Mozart’s crowning masterpiece also in B flat,written in the last year of his short life

Filippo Tenisci played with such clarity and sense of style each note like a jewel enveloped in the sensitive sounds that the orchestra under Sieva Borzak were providing.It was a performance of pure chamber music – each player listening to the other in an interplay that gave great buoyancy in particular to the Rondo finale.The beautiful flowing Andante showed Tenisci’s superb musicianship and technical control He could even relax more now and follow the contours of the magic sounds he was producing with flowing,more natural movements like an artist’s brush across the canvas.The cadenza in the first movement was played with great authority never out stepping the style and above all musical qualities.

Mozart had composed this concerto for performance at a series of concerts at the Vienna venues of the Trattnerhof and the Burgtheater in the first quarter of 1784, where he was himself the soloist in March 1784.In a letter to his father, Mozart compared this concerto with K 451 in D :”I consider them both to be concertos which make one sweat; but the B flat one beats the one in D for difficulty.”Many pianists consider this to be one of the most difficult of Mozart’s piano concertos,and the last movement is among Mozart’s most challenging works for the keyboard.He even began to use the term “grand” to describe concertos such as K.450 which features a prominent wind section of a “newly intricate and sophisticated” character compared to his previous ones.The difficulties were played with consummate ease by Tenisci who together with Borzak and his orchestra imbued the finale with an irresistible charm.

The concerto K .456 was written in the same year of 1784 and is scored for strings plus flute,two oboes,two bassoons and two horns for a long time believed to have been written for the blind pianist Maria Theresa von Paradis to play in Paris.Francesco Grano gave a very sensitive performance full of delicacy and colour.The embellishments in the last movement were played with a teasing charm and irresistible sense of style.