Gramophone Praises Jan Willem de Vriend and Dejan L´CaziC in Latest Mozart Recording

The prestigious British classical music magazine Gramophone has published an enthusiastic review of the third volume in pianist Dejan Lazić's ongoing Mozart series, recorded with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Jan Willem de Vriend. The disc, released on Challenge Classics (CC72947) features Piano Concertos No. 12 in A major (K414) and No. 20 in D minor (K466), together with the Rondo in D (K485).

Reviewer David Threasher singles out the qualities he identified in the very first volume of the series as hallmarks of this partnership: affection and individuality. In his view, both are very much in evidence here, for the A major Concerto (1782/83) and the ubiquitous D minor (1785) alike.

"Affection and individuality as hallmarks of the first volume and that remains true for this pairing."

— David Threasher, Gramophone, March 2026

Particular praise is reserved for Lazić's own cadenzas in K466, which while described as perhaps slightly expansive are admired as intriguing and inventive explorations of the concerto's principal motifs, drawing on nineteenth-century pianistic techniques to carry the music a little beyond its eighteenth-century world. Threasher also commends Lazić's careful shaping of phrases and his use of minute agogic pauses, which build tension and lend the performance a sense of musical inevitability.

The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under De Vriend is praised for its sensitive and responsive accompaniment throughout most notably in the turbulent opening tutti of K466 and in the plaintive wind writing of the central Romanze, where orchestra and soloist are heard as a genuinely unified ensemble.

"The combination of artistry and intelligence customarily exhibited by Lazić is its own reward."

— David Threasher, Gramophone, March 2026

Threasher concludes with a broad recommendation, suggesting that this gradually unfolding Mozart series is sure to appeal far beyond the pianist's existing admirers high praise indeed from one of the classical music world's most authoritative voices.

Album: Mozart Piano Concertos – Vol. 3

Catalogue number: CC72947

Soloist: Dejan Lazić, piano

Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor: Jan Willem de Vriend

Label: Challenge Classics

Duration: approx. 66 minutes

Review source: Gramophone, March 2026