Naxos has announced two CD releases from the VOX catalog.

The two recordings – Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 17 & 27 (VOX-NX-3012CD) featuring pianist Walter Klien with the Minnesota Orchestra, led by Stanisław Skrowaczewski, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 and Vocalise (VOX-NX-3013CD) featuring the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, led by Leonard Slatkin are treasures from the VOX vault made from the originals, restored, and remastered by Joanna Nickrenz and Marc Aubort.

In 1784 Mozart composed several piano concertos, of which he dedicated his piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, Op. 9, K. 453to a female pupil. Before 1784 and between that year and 1791 – the year of Mozart’s death – there were other concertos, including some for two and three pianos, but these two: the piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, Op. 9, K. 453, and the piano Concerto No. 27 in B♭ major, K. 595 stand above the others as cornerstones of Mozart ’s body of compositions for the keyboard.

During his distinguished career Austrian pianist Walter Klien (1928-1981) performed with the world’s top orchestras, including the Minnesota Orchestra. The orchestra is brilliantly led here by the late Stanislaw Skrowaczewski in an elegant reading of both these concertos. Klien plays nobly, never more so than in the second movements of both these works.

Rafael de Acha © 2023