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Piano Concertos Nos. 24 & 25
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Piano Concertos Nos. 24 & 25

Ben Kim

Label: Challenge Classics
Format: CD
Barcode: 0608917293524
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Catalog number: CC 72935
Releasedate: 03-03-23

- In his second disc of Mozart Concertos for Challenge Classics, Ben Kim confronts two great concertos like Nos. 24 and 25, both composed in Vienna in 1786. Both works are numbered among the masterpieces of the genre.

- The album reflects Mozart's artistic development and how it alienated his listeners, but also of the artist's own journey of finding confidence in vulnerability.

- His previous CC 72816 (Concertos Nos. 17 & 23) was welcomed by Gramophone: “his debut with Challenge reveals a sensitive touch… [his] performances give pleasure in their delivery of Mozart’s indelible melodic writing” and by BBC Music Magazine: “… a recording that offers considerable rewards.”

If in my previous recording of Mozart Concertos I tried to say something valid and truthful, albeit sincere, with this album I wanted to simply be. 

For me, Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos. 24 and 25 are a testament to the beauty and imperfection of the human experience and about finding joy and meaning in the midst of pain and hardship. 

Even though they are considered today to have pushed the boundaries of the genre, the premiere of the 24th concerto in 1786 left listeners puzzled and uneasy. It wasn’t an opera, yet it sounded like one. What was a piece of passionate lament doing in a solo concerto expected to dazzle more than move audiences? By the time he wrote the 25th, unapologetically symphonic in scope, Mozart had lost enough subscribers that he had to postpone his performance by an entire season. The concerto would not be performed again until nearly 150 years later by Arthur Schnabel.

Musicologists have since speculated about the reasons for this abandonment. Perhaps it was the public's fickle taste, or Austria’s economic crisis, or perhaps it was both. But the reason that makes most sense to me: Mozart’s artistic development alienated his listeners. 

At the cost of losing his audience Mozart was trying – as we all do – to re-align with himself, and be himself more truthfully, more succinctly, more unapologetically. But finding confidence in vulnerability somehow became the story of this album – not just Mozart’s, but also my own.