Maria Yudina plays Mozart with profundity and spirituality. To those of us familiar with her interpretations of later composers, a wonderful surprise awaits. There is a dark side to Mozart, profound, spiritual, almost pagan. If you are familiar with the Masonic Funeral Music you know it. This is music that plumbs the depths of feeling, neither sorrow, nor tragedy, not any particular feeling, rather more the essence of the human condition.
We have several examples to consider. You will hear it in its purest form in Mari Yudina's performance of a transcription by Dmitri Saltykov of the "Lacrimosa" from Mozart's Requiem.
The manner in which Maria Yudina plays Mozart's D minor Fantasia attains a purity in its devotion to the score all the more dramatic for its lack of sentiment. The Rondo receives an understated performance, very different than is usual, that demonstrates how much is in the music and how little it needs of externally imposed emotion. Yudina is one of those rare musicians who understands the fine line between creating an environment in which the music will thrive and obscuring the music with extraneous interpretative effects.
Of the concerti for piano, the D minor, n°20, comes closest to the dark Mozart. It is often played with excess of expression, too loudly and strongly, resulting in the artist's own feelings masking the music. Maria Yudina plays Mozart's concerto with a minimum of herself between Mozart and the listener. Her performance receives a most beautiful accompaniment from a conductor and orchestra regrettably unidentified.
The final work offered here is the Piano Concerto in A Major, n°23. When Stalin died in his bed on March 5, 1953, a recording of Maria Yudina playing this very concerto was spinning on his record player. While the entirety of the concerto may not be of the dark side, the adagio certainly is, it is bittersweet, and perhaps symbolic of the Yudina's life under the yolk of the Soviet system.
Mozart/Saltykov "Lacrimosa" from the D minor Requiem Recorded live in 1954
Mozart Fantasia in D minor, K 397
Mozart Rondo in A-minor, K 511
Mozart Piano Concerto n°20 in D minor K 466 Recorded in 1948
i Allegro (beginning)
i Allegro (conclusion)
ii Romanze (beginning)
ii Romanze (conclusion)
iii Allegro assai
Mozart Piano Concerto n°23 in A Major K 488 Recorded in 1948
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