Arts & Events

Continuing her multi-year tour performing all of Mozart’s Piano Concertos, Mitsuko Uchida returned to Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall on Sunday afternoon, March 23, where she again joined forces with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Mozart’s Piano Concertos #18 and #21. Uchida’s collaboration with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra dates back to 2016, when she assumed the position of An Artistic Partner of this ensemble. It is a felicitous collaboration, and the musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra respond enthusiastically to Mitsuko Uchida’s leadership from the piano. Particularly notable in this concert was the work of flautist Chiara Tonelli, who was featured prominently in both Mozart concertos and in the Mladi for Wind Sextet of Leoś Janáček. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat Major, K. 456, was written for the 26-year old Maria Theresia von Paradis, who, despite being blind, was an exceptionally talented and much sought after piano soloist. As a friend of the Mozart family, she asked Wolfgang to write a piano concerto for her to play in a forthcoming tour in Paris. Wolfgang happily complied and composed this rather feminine work, which shows off the delicacy and gentle, lyrical style of Maria Theresia von Paradis’s technique.  

Interplay between strings and woodwinds is featured in the orchestra throughout both the opening movement’s march theme and in the beautiful and somewhat sorrowful slow second movement. The third and final movement offers a jaunty rondo with a few surprises thrown in here and there to dramatic effect. Throughout this entire work, the spirited collaboration between pianist Mitsuko Uchida and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra was extremely effective. Rounding out the first half of this program was Leoś Janáček’s Mládi for Wind Sextet. This brief work offered brilliant interplay among the six musicians. Scored for flute (doubling on piccolo), oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon and horn, this work features all the different colorations these instruments provide. Having never heard this work before, I was won over by its wit and mastery of colour. After intermission,. Misuko Uchida returned to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467. This beautiful concerto is often dubbed the Elvira Madigan Concerto due to Bo Widerberg’s memorable use of this work’s beautiful second movement in his film Elvira Madigan. But this sublime work needs no filmic mages of a beautiful young girl roaming through fields of wildflowers to communicate its appreciation of the wonders of nature, for the music alone evokes all this quite splendidly. Mitsuko Uchida gave a magnificent rendering of this Andante, which may well be the finest slow movement, among so many, that Mozart ever penned. Not to be undervalued, however, are the bookend movements. The first is a gentle march in which oboe, bassoon, and flute offer a welcoming invitation to the piano for its first solo moment. The finale is in the form of a rondo with wonderful opportunities for the woodwinds to accompany or comment upon the pianist. Once again, the collaboration between Mitsuko Uchida and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra was outstanding. All told, this was Mozart at his very best!