Nearly a decade ago, the itinerant virtuosi of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra teamed up with Leif Ove Andsnes, a Norwegian master pianist who in such company also leads from the keyboard, for Beethoven Journey, a concert tour documented in an acclaimed three-CD box of the composer’s complete music for solo piano and orchestra. The current series takes as its springboard Mozart’s prophetic Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466. What’s so special about No. 20? For one, the use of a minor key—very much the exception in the symphonic repertoire of the period. For another, the use of this minor key, shortly to figure as signifier of divine judgment in Don Giovanni and the Requiem. Varying from city to city, the tour repertoire also includes piano concertos in a more joyous mood, along with chamber music and vocal selections performed by Christiane Karg, a soprano of sterling Mozartian credentials. The three-program residencies in Hamburg, Vienna, and Brussels are well worth investigating in full. —M.G.
Traveling to Hamburg, (November 8-10), Lugano (November 12), Berlin (November 13), Vienna (November 15-17), and Brussels (November 19-21)