Performers
Daniel Barenboim
The Berlin Philharmonic

Daniel Barenboim Buenos Aires-born child prodigy and world-famous, if sometimes controversial conductor tends to be known these days for commanding the world's orchestras or leading his own admirable experiment in race relations, the East-Western Divan Orchestra, so it is refreshing to see him here returning to his roots. It was on the piano that he gave his first recital aged five, and with which he took the classical world by storm in his teens, so it is perhaps fitting that here he plays the work of another musician whose gift was in evidence from the outset; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Here, he performs the popular Piano Concerto No 23 K 488 in A major, famous for its open sunny theme. Written at the time in which Mozart found perhaps his greatest acclaim as a concerto pianist, it is at once beautifully simple, yet with delicate filigree variation and a rousing woodwind finale.