Piano Concertos no. 20 and 24

Clara Haskil
Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux directed by Igor Markevitch
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartPhilips 2004


Music that enters as by osmosis into one’s heart is well studied, not music studied mechanically (do re mi fa sol la ti do). What an infinite road, what a long, endless, rocky road must 99% of people in the world travel to reach the tenderness of the musical fluctuation of living and, therefore, of the perception
of self and of relationships of which Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 20 is the greatest example we have in history.
Where does this feeling of self and of existence come from, so fervent, so lively and at the same time so moved?
It is quite true that man’s original activity is that of acknowledgement and recognition. There is nothing more intense than the activity of one who, with eyes wide open, looks at a painting or a face that he likes; there is nothing more thrilling, more tense, more vibrant, in other words, more active. I think
that artistic creation is no more than this.

(Excerpt from the introduction by Luigi Giussani to the booklet enclosed in the CD)