Francesco Piemontesi, SCO & Andrew Manze - Mozart: Piano Concertos 25 & 26 - Hi-Fi News

Working the Usher Hall, Philip Hobbs secures a bold, rich, orchestral sound with a perfectly scaled central image for the soloist. He's a young Swiss artist making a Linn debut and his playing is articulate and expressive - too much so in the lovely theme suddenly appearing in K503 (iii), echoed by solo oboe. Piemontesi makes rather a meal of this. And some of the decoration in the slow movement I found extraneous (preferring the plain text version offered in the Askenazy recording). The later work, often disparaged, emerges here as a sparklingly fresh and Manze's winds balances are telling in both concertos.