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, Barenboim performs the Piano Concerto No 25 in C major K503. Written in late 1786, the work was composed at the same time as the 'Prague', when Mozart's music was most in demand and he was at his most affluent. The concerto was written originally for a series of Advent subscription concerts, but as these concerts never took place, it was not heard for three more months, until, in March 1787, it was included in a Lent concert programme, performed by Mozart himself.