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If I were to name one of my favourite pianists, from those who have active international careers nowadays, a first option would most assuredly be Mitsuko Uchida, the 65 year old British pianist of Japanese descent, a musician that I have never heard live, but whom I hope to hear, at least once, performing in Romania.

On Music Box, we listened to Mitsuko Uchida in a Mozart repertoire, her newest album being dedicated to Mozart, as well. Mitsuko Uchida made other recordings alongside the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra on an album which appeared on 4^th August, 2014. We have nicknamed Uchida "the haiku pianist", because of her way of playing, highlighting the essence and doing away with any artifice.

I think that this way of performing is what convinced the jury of the Grammy Awards to offer her the much coveted distinction in 2011, for Mozart's concerts, No. 23 and No. 24.

The Concerts, No.18 and No.19, recorded on the album launched on 4^th August, 2014, will help you recognize the exact style that established her as a pianist. It was not by chance, that I include this album in the "Vote the best classical album of 2014" campaign, which I hope you will take part in, because your points will decide on the classical album of the year 2014.

Mitsuko Uchida

If I were to compare Mitsuko Uchida to another pianist of our times, I think that would have to be Radu Lupu. They have a lot in common, the preference for a particular repertoire, which is similar,in fact.Uchida has approached the entirety of Mozart's Sonatas and Concertos, as well as opuses by Schubert and Beethoven, predominantly; they have the same introverted personality and reserved attitude towards excessive media exposure, and the same tendency towards the perfection of detail.

Uchida was resident artist of the Cleveland Orchestra from 2002 to 2007, and in the concerts held there she interpreted a wide variety of Piano and Orchestra Concertos by Mozart; it is an experience in and of itself to collaborate with one of the best orchestras of the world. The Cleveland Orchestra is part of the group called The Big Five Orchestras - the five best American orchestras, together with the orchestras from Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and the New York Philharmonic. And it is common knowledge that American orchestras excel through quality - they have the human and financial resources to accomplish an otherworldly performance. As an aside, we are quite proud that a Romanian person is the associate conductor of one of these five orchestras, the one in Philadelphia; I am referring to Cristian Măcelaru, whom we will applaud again at the music rack of the National Radio Orchestra.