Poor Franz Xaver Mozart. Always in the shadow of his famous father, this precocious pianist struggled to make a significant career, even when billing himself “WA Mozart Jnr” on endless European concert tours. His first piano concerto, from 1809, is a homage to Mozart senior’s Viennese concertos; bursting with sparkling pianism and delightful, lyrical themes, it could almost be an exercise in clever pastiche. The second, however, is more distinctly his own; noble and broad in conception with some bravura writing for the soloist, engagingly played here by the admirable Howard Shelley.
