Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel is one of the most important exponents of the German-Viennese classic and romantic traditions, whose intellectual rigor and poetic spirit has enriched the public for more than 60 years. The main focus throughout his extensive concert and recording career has been on interpreting Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Brahms.

Being one of the founding fathers of the German-Viennese classical tradition, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s contribution to music history speaks for itself. More specifically, one of his greatest achievements in composition is the piano concerto. While improvising and experimenting from the keyboard, he masterly combined instrumental and operatic styles. This interaction between instrumental and operatic elements can particularly be heard in the last movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.17, which on this album is coupled with his Piano Concerto No.12. This latest release in Pentatone’s Remastered Classics series presents a 1970 Philips Classics recording of the two piano concertos in a performance by Alfred Brendel, with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner.