Mozart: Piano Quartets Finghin Collins

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791): Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, K. 478:
• 1 Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, K. 478: I. Allegro 14:58
• 2 Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, K. 478: II. Andante 07:20
• 3 Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, K. 478: III. Rondo. Allegro moderato 07:53
• Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-Flat Major, K. 493:
• 4 Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-Flat Major, K. 493: I. Allegro 15:01
• 5 Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-Flat Major, K. 493: II. Larghetto 13:09
• 6 Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-Flat Major, K. 493: III. Allegretto 09:11
• Total Runtime 01:07:32

Info for Mozart: Piano Quartets

Mozart’s Piano Quartets date from the mid 1780s – a period that also brought, among many other things, five of his major piano concerti (D minor K. 466; C major K. 467; E flat major K. 482; A major K. 488 & C minor K. 491), two important string quartets (including the Dissonance K. 465), and his opera Le nozze di Figaro.

While there were earlier incursions by less well-remembered figures into the piano quartet repertoire, it took Mozart to raise its status on to an unprecedented plateau. In his two quartets he found a way of giving each instrument - violin, viola, cello and piano - its rightful sense of independence.

According to the composer’s own catalogue, the K. 478 Quartet was completed on 16th October 1785 and was among a number of works requested by the Viennese publisher, Franz Anton Hoffmeister, who was also a composer. In it Mozart treats his four instrumentalists as equals, with the concerto-like piano part well balanced against the continuously interesting string writing.

However, Hoffmeister, hoping for something to suit the amateur market, was dissatisfied with what Mozart submitted, complaining the music was too difficult and that the public would never buy it. He told the composer to write in a more popular vein or else he would neither print anything further of his nor pay him. The disgruntled Mozart responded, “Then I will write nothing more, and grow hungry or maybe the devil take me!” But he did write another Piano Quartet, completing it on 3rd June 1786. This time the more obliging firm of Artaria published it.

Finghin Collins
One of Ireland's most successful musicians, Dubliner Finghin Collins was born in 1977 and studied piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with John O'Conor and at the Geneva Conservatoire with Dominique Merlet. Winner of the RTÉ Musician of the Future Competition in 1994 and the Classical Category at the National Entertainment Awards in Ireland in1998, he went on to achieve major international success by taking first prize at the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland in 1999. Since then he has developed a flourishing international career that takes him all over Europe, the United States and the Far East.

Collins has performed with such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, garnering consistent praise from critics and public alike. Conductors with whom he has collaborated include Frans Brüggen, Myung-Whun Chung, Christoph Eschenbach, Hans Graf, Emmanuel Krivine, Nicholas McGegan, Gianandrea Noseda, Sakari Oramo, Tadaaki Otaka, Heinrich Schiff, Vassily Sinaisky, Leonard Slatkin and Gábor Tákacs-Nagy.

Performances across Europe have included such prestigious venues as Symphony Hall Birmingham, Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall and Cadogan Hall, London, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam (both halls), Théâtre du Châtelet and Salle Cortot Paris, Salle Molière Lyon, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Auditorio Nacional Madrid, Palao de la Musica Valencia, Gulbenkian Hall Lisbon, Sala Verdi Milan, Teatro Manzoni Bologna, Konzerthaus Berlin, Konzerthaus Vienna, Franz Liszt Academy Budapest, Philharmonic Hall Warsaw and the Auditorium Stravinski Montreux. He has also performed at Carnegie Hall, New York and the Kennedy Center, Washington DC, as well as at both Ravinia and Gilmore Festivals in the USA. European Festival appearances include the Piano Festival at La Roque d’Anthéron(France), Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (Germany), Lockenhaus Festival (Austria), Delft International Chamber Music Festival and Storioni Festival (Holland), Chopin Festival (Poland), Musical Olympus Festival (Russia), Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad (Switzerland), as well as the Mostly Mozart Festival (UK).

Chamber music plays a significant role in his musical life and he has collaborated with London Winds and the Aviv, Callino, Chilingirian, ConTempo, Ebène, Goldner, Shanghai, Skampa, St Petersburg, Vanbrugh, Vertavo and Vogler String Quartets. Chamber music partners have included violinists Tasmin Little, Kristóf Bárati and Ilya Gringolts, cellists Han-Na Chang, Marc Coppey, István Várdai, clarinettists Sharon Kam, Romain Guyot and Carol McGonnell, sopranos Ailish Tynan and Lenneke Ruiten, tenor James Gilchrist and baritone Maarten Koningsberger, among many others.

In 2010 Finghin Collins gave his second critically-acclaimed performance at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In 2013 he completed his three-year tenure as Associate Artist of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin, completing a cycle of the complete Mozart and Beethoven piano concertos and commissioning a new work for piano and orchestra by Deirdre Gribbin.

In 2016 Finghin made his debuts in Turkey, China and Australia as well as performing throughout Europe. In March 2017, he performs a recital as part of the National Concert Hall's International Concert Series to mark his 40th birthday. Other engagements include performances in Jersey, Switzerland, France, Ireland and the USA, where he will make his debut at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in August 2017, performing with counter-tenor David Daniels.

Over the past decade Collins has developed a close relationship with Claves Records in Switzerland, recording two double CDs of Schumann’s piano music (which won numerous awards including Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice in 2006), and more recently recording a CD of works for piano and orchestra by Charles V. Stanford with the RTÉ NSO / Kenneth Montgomery (Editor's Choice, May 2011). In May 2013 RTÉ lyric fm launched his latest recording of four Mozart piano concertos directed from the keyboard with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. A new Chopin recital CD will be released in 2017, a co-production between RTÉ lyric fm and Claves Records.

Finghin Collins is very active as a programmer, commissioner and concert presenter in Ireland, having been Artistic Director of the New Ross Piano Festival since its inception in 2006, and Artistic Director of Music for Galway since 2013. In addition, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Dublin International Piano Competition (2006 - 2015), a member of the Board of Directors of the National Concert Hall (2001 - 2006), Musician-in-Residence in South Dublin County Council (2005 - 2008) and Artist-in-Residence in Waterford Institute of Technology (2005 - 2009).

This album contains no booklet.