The Rest Is Noise: Mozart by Andres
reminds me that the Metropolis Ensemble has uploaded audio of its
at the Angel Orensanz Center, on the Lower East Side. Of particular interest is
’s startling performance / recomposition of Mozart’s “Coronation” Concerto. The score is missing most of the left-hand piano part (you can follow along in the
, with the solo beginning on p. 9); Andres, in a fine display of creative bravado, decided to fill in the gaps in his own early twentieth-first-century style. I attended the concert, and, to be honest, I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing at first. All manner of odd things have been done in the cadenzas of classical concertos over the years — Schnittke’s
, Gilles Apap’s
Gyspy-bluegrass improvisations
— but it is much rarer to hear a performer tampering with the main body of a score. A lot of people will cry sacrilege when they hear this. After recovering from the initial shock, I found Andres’s approach mesmerizing, if not always entirely convincing. And it’s a relief to witness a serious young artist treating a canonical masterpiece with something other than passive reverence. On a deeper level, it’s Mozartian in spirit. I also strongly recommend giving a close listen to Anna Clyne’s
.