PROGRAMME
W. A. MOZART: Piano Concerto No.18 K.456
G. F. HÄNDEL: Concerto Grosso op. 3 No. 2
W. A. MOZART: Piano Concerto No.21 K.467

PERFORMING WITH
Mitsuko Uchida piano & director
José Maria Blumenschein concertmaster & leader
Mahler Chamber Orchestra

MCO NOTE:
The fifth year of our collaboration with Artistic Partner Mitsuko Uchida brings us from Luxembourg to London.

For this concert in Luxembourg Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18 and No. 21 frame George Frideric Handel’s Concerto Grosso op. 3 No. 2.

Often overshadowed by his more famous B-flat concerto (Piano Concerto No. 27), Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18 leans towards the entertaining rather than the expressive, offering glimpses of the deeper poignance that would characterize his later works.

The opening movement of Handel’s Concerto Grosso op. 3 No. 2 bears a close relationship to Handel’s Brockes Passion of 1716. Two dance movements, a minuet, and a gavotte complete the concerto. In the Largo, the oboe’s expressive cantilena is gently accompanied by the broken-chord accompaniment of two concertante cellos.

The concert concludes with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, K. 467, a work of depth and beauty. Known for its large melodic leaps and underlying restlessness, this concerto’s middle movement is particularly renowned for its expressive poignancy.