You’ll want to check out as many high quality recordings of the Mozart G major concerto as you can – it’s so gorgeous and no two recordings are identical – you’ll want to listen until you’re humming it in your sleep. Listen in the car, on the bus, while walking or running, and sometimes sit down with the music and study the score while you’re noticing what Emanuel Pahud does differently from Galway or Carol Wincenc – revel in every detail, every similarity and every difference. You’ll be the performer – you’ll get to not only try to emulate these great performers, but also make your own choices. The only way to really understand the choices available is to fully immerse yourself in an understanding of the details – where is there a little extra vibrato in one performance – which notes exactly? which phrases are shaped slightly differently from one recording to the next? Which notes are pulled a little more or in different ways? Which performance tugs on you in a way that makes you feel like melting into a puddle? WHY? Identify the details that cause that feeling or inspiration.

Here are some current YouTube links to videos that are currently up in September of 2014 that I think are on the “must hear” list:

Emmanuel Pahud with Berliner Philharmoniker HD, Claudio Abbado – these days Pahud tends to be at the top of the list:

 

 

Anything Julius Baker has ever recorded will be on the “must hear” list:

Of course, Galway is a standard in any comparison:

As is Rampal – though unfortunately this doesn’t have the greatest audio recording quality – but listen and compare the performance itself underneath the annoying extraneous noise:

I may add to this list – a quick search on YouTube will make it clear there are too many to check out all at once! But those listed above will get you started. Check out some others though for comparison. You’ll certainly find some that aren’t as great as the ones above – what is it about those that makes them less interesting (aside from any obvious mistakes)?

Most of all, enjoy this listening. Really let yourself sink into it and revel as you let the vibration of the music sink in. The more you love the piece, the better you’ll play it!