Cristian Sandrin plays Mozart
Elegance and intelligence combine with radiant simplicity
Cristian Sandrin playing three Mozart concertos with simplicity,radiance and beauty with players from the London Mozart Players. Two of the concertos especially prepared by Cristian for string quartet in an evening in which the genius of Mozart was celebrated by master musicians with humility and integrity.
I heard FouTs’ong play the three concertos K 413 – 414 – 415 in a concert that I have never forgotten. These were three concertos that Mozart had written especially with string quartet in mind .Other composers too have written for strings alone and include Saint Saens, Busoni and Liszt. Adding wind instruments can be costly and tip the balance where a single violin or cello cannot merge so easily with a wind instrument. Cristian has prepared the A major K 488 and E flat K 482 for string quartet and as he says ‘ I uncovered unexpected connections between various themes across the concertos, during the process of re-writing the orchestral score. It made me realise that the overflow of constant new melodies and tunes from these later concertos are part of a complex web of motifs, something that I would have normally associated with Beethoven’s music. The simple act of re-writing music down enforces certain connections in the brain. In one sense it is a remarkable method to internalise the music and the orchestral score.
