Concertos, Yes, but a Mozart Never Far From His Operatic Impulse

By ALLAN KOZINN [NY Times, 3 February 2006]
The second installment of the New York Philharmonic’s three-week “Magic of Mozart” minifestival is all about concertos. In the first half of the program, on Thursday evening at Avery Fisher Hall, Jeffrey Kahane, a conductor who began his career as a pianist, played two of Mozart’s meatier piano concertos ó No. 17 in G and No. 20 in D minor ó leading the orchestra from the keyboard. After the intermission, he moved to the podium and presided over the Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola, with Michelle Kim and Rebecca Young as soloists.