Expert: David Froom - 10/13/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hi David,

Thank you for reading my question.  

Yesterday, while on hold at Wells Fargo, I listened to a brief portion of a classical piano concerto I'd originally heard several years ago (also on hold) at my former stockbroker, Brown & Co.  I'd immediately liked what I heard originally (on hold at Brown & Co.), but when I asked them about their "music on hold", they couldn't give me any leads.  

When I heard the concerto again yesterday, I recognized it immediately, and again wanted to find out the name of the piece. I recorded a short clip with the Windows sound recorder while I was waiting.  Some passages definitely sound Mozartian to me, but since Mozart is my favorite classical composer, I've listened to many, many hours of his work repeatedly (primarily the latter concertos).  Consequently, I may be biased to believe what I hear is his work, when in fact, what I'm hearing are classical elements generally.  

I listened to samples of all the Mozart piano concertos I could find on Amazon that were allegro or faster with no luck, but I certainly could have overlooked something.  I also searched Haydn, Bach and Beethoven.

I'm going to continue searching tomorrow.  In the meantime, can I send you the audio clip?  Perhaps you can give me some insight.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide at your convenience.

Mark


ANSWER: Sure, send it. Send to dfroom@gmail.com, then respond to AllExperts to let me know you sent it.

I'll give it a try.

DF

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION:
David,

Saturday afternoon (10/10) I sent you a .wav file of the piano concerto from the "music on hold" to the e-mail address you specified in your reply.

Thanks again,

Mark

ANSWER: That's the last movement of Mozart's Piano Quintet in E flat major, K. 452.  It is for piano and winds.

David Froom

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks David.

Can you recommend a good recording of the quintet by professional musicians?

Mark

Answer
That's a hard one, and it really is a matter of taste.  I think all the recordings out there are decent.  You might try your local library to see if they have this for you to check out.  Then listen to snippets from the versions on iTunes, or on various websites.  The largest choice, I think, is on Arkivmusic.com, though they generally don't give audio snippets.

I think whichever way you go, you will be happy.

David Froom