CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Mozart: The Piano Sonatas

CD-Charts > Music > ( U )
from: Philips

Release Date October 28, 2003
Quand on écoute les sonates pour piano de Mozart, si admirablement interprétées par la merveilleuse pianiste Mitsuko Uchida, on ne peut que constater, à l'écoute de son jeu de piano, qu'elle ne joue pas seulement qu'avec ses dix doigts. Son amour et sa profonde passion pour l'oeuvre de Mozart, on l'entend à chaque note, à chaque souffle. Son âme musicale fait ici office de chef d'orchestre et ses dix doigts, eux, ils sont comme des musiciens qui s'exécuteraient et obéiraient, à la baguette et à l'oeil, à la volonté du Maestro.

CD-Charts Position 2
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Mozart: The Piano Concertos

CD-Charts > Music > ( U )
from: Philips

Release Date April 11, 2006
Wonderful. The best Mozart Piano Concerto set out there...music which lifts you above all problems and speaks to your heart.

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Osvaldo Golijov: Ayre

CD-Charts > Music > ( U )
by: Osvaldo Golijov, Dawn Upshaw, Luciano Berio, Folk Songs

Release Date September 27, 2005
I was present for a performance of Ayre in New York a couple of years ago. It's a song cycle drawing on several different cultural and historical traditions -- Christian, Muslim, Jewish and of course the composer's native South America. The performance was quite exhilirating. The music is mostly tuneful and the orchstration very interesting.
Still, I can't help wondering if this is the kind of music that will last. Will people still be listening to Ayre 100 years from now? I'm not sure. I hear geat talent and skill -- but do I hear genius? Again, I'm not convinced. Sometimes, I have the feeling of being manipulated. This music is very politically correct, especially the long lament for the Palestinians at the center of this work.
... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
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Schoenberg: Piano Concerto

CD-Charts > Music > ( U )
by: Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Pierre Boulez, Mitsuko Uchida, Cleveland Orchestra

Release Date April 10, 2001
I'm not familiar with Brendel's Schoenberg "Piano Concerto", but Boulez has a special vision for Schoenberg. Listen to his "Moses and Aaron", sharp, cleanly impassioned, razor-sharp edges, provincial the way Bach is played, purely functional, unadorned phrases, and musical shapes. Uchida as well brings a controlled passion to the work, not compromising the work's content in any way. In fact that is a dangerous trap of over-determining Schoenberg, especially the music he wrote in exile, as this Concerto. The darkest clouds of Europa and the globe all around art and the humanity in many ways is inside this work. Schoenberg had renewed his interest in Judaism, where some actually criticized him for doing so,coming back to the fold too late, after living a life of ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Mitsuko Uchida Plays Schubert

CD-Charts > Music > ( U )
from: Philips

Release Date March 15, 2005
I must say that I didn't know what to expect from this CD when I first bought it. Sometimes classical piano music can become tedious and put me to sleep (which of course isn't all that bad). However, I really like the painist - Mitsuko Uchida, and I was interested in getting an album focused on Schubert, since he is known as one of the best classical composers. Well, I must say that I wasn't disappointed. This is an excellent album and Mitsuko Uchida plays these piano pieces so well. I especially like Schubert's final two piano sonatas (959 and 960). It seems that Schuberts sadness and anger comes through in them, and of course, at this time, he was closed to dying. These two sonatas, in and of themselves, are worth the buy. All in all, this is an excellent ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Long Time Ago - Copland / Dawn Upshaw & Thomas Hampson

CD-Charts > Music > ( U )
from: Teldec

Release Date May 31, 1994
Thomas Hampson has an amazing artistic range and this CD compilation shows his lighter side. The first time I heard him sing the children's nursery rhyme Fiddle I Fee, I laughed out loud. Who knew he did animal noises too? My six year old daughter also loves this compilation.

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

"Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Opp. 109, 110 & 111"

CD-Charts > Music > ( U )
from: Philips

Release Date April 25, 2006
I admire Mitsuko Uchida's scholarship, and her clearly planned trajectory in choice of repertory. My impression, which is solely based on my observation of her career, is that she wisely chose to begin with Mozart, as that simply was what she knew she could play with all her heart, bringing to the music intelligence, the perfect techinique (and as a pianist, believe me, that technique is maybe not even "teachable" but a karmic gift...)

There is good reason why we have had to wait awhile for Uchida to give us these recordings of Beethoven 109,110, 111. Articlate is the one word I find that best sums her playing of these works. Others reviews have expressed the beauty of the engineering of these recordings. I'm sure Uchida-san stayed through the process that gives ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Schubert: Piano Sonata D. 960/3 Klavierstücke D. 946

CD-Charts > Music > ( U )
from: Philips

Release Date August 11, 1998
I've listened to Schubert's sonata D 960 (on recordings) played by Schnabel, Brendel, Richter and Tabe; none comes remotely close to the lyricism that Uchida evokes with her overt feminine interpretaion. The first movement especially, it is as if the music is sung from the artist's soul.

While many audiences seem to prefer the slow version played by Richter, to me, overly exaggerated stretches in the timing of movement one seems out of character with the rest of the piece. It doesn't appear to me that Schubert is communicating his farewell with despair, even in these last moments in his life; or else he would not have ended this last Sonata with such power and hope. In my opinion, Uchida balances the hesitations well with the silences; and fluidity with a clarity of ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Voices of Light

CD-Charts > Music > ( U )
from: Nonesuch

Release Date August 24, 2004
OK, quibble all you want with Dawn Upshaw's French pronunciations...I'm told the French find American accents "sexy." Upshaw and Kalish bring remarkable interpretive skill to these performances. The Debussy "Chansons de Bilitis," set poems by one of the composer's best friends to music of exquisite, almost erotic playfulness. Similarly, Faure's "Chanson d'Eve" is a remarkably beautiful late work of serene detachment. I'm not a big fan of Messian's music, but Upshaw and Kalish certainly make the most of these difficult and "ecstatic" songs. All told, with the delicious Golijov song tossed in, a lush treat.

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 21

CD-Charts > Music > ( U )
from: Philips

Release Date October 25, 1990
This performance of Mozart's two masterpiece piano concertos are fairly good, especially in the no. 21. But there are some reservations in the 20th that keeps mee giving this CD a higher rating.

The main thing that brings this CD rating down a bit is the recording. While it is uniformaly decent, in general I felt the piano was a bit overwhelmed by the orchestra. I'm not sure if its the actual recording or just Mitsuko Uchida's interpretation but this is a piano concerto and for my taste the piano should be center stage.

In the 20th concerto, her playing is a bit passive for me and this is where she gets overwhelmed by the orchestra. It almost sounds like she is afraid of making this piece sound too romantic so she holds back. And while her technique is flawless, I find it ... Read More: