Mozart Violin Concerto No.5 & Piano Concerto No.27 - Classical Music CDs for Relaxation, Study & Elegant Dinner Background

Peter Serkin has recorded eight Mozart piano concerti, #10 (for two pianos with Rudolf Serkin), #s 14-19 w/ Alexander Schneider (see my reviews), and this #27. All are outstanding, and I wish that he would record more. I count his recent (ca.2005) Caramoor performance of #24 w/ the St. Luke's Chamber Orchestra as the greatest live Mozart concerto that I have heard. He is a poet with great technical skill, playing with subtle and enlightening inflection, not rushing passagework if it demands more than bravura, and in #27 capturing its ambivalence: gaiety and sadness co-exist. Like his father, he plays the Larghetto more as an Adagio than an Andante. I find this quite rewarding because the music can sustain/support his interpretation- it is not slowness for itsown sake. Silverstein/Rochester provide sympathetic support, and the two artists are in synch.I am less impressed with the violin concerto performance which is technically secure but somewhat bland/?soulless c.f, Grumiaux, Szeryng, and Schneiderhan. In #27, I also recommend Haskil/Fricsay, Rudolf Serkin/Schneider and Ormandy, Haebler/Galliera, Larrocha/Davis and Curzon/Szell,Kubelik and Kertesz.