Gottlieb Wallisch - Piatti Quartet - Mozart: Piano Concertos 12, 13 & 14 - AllMusic

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed all of his piano concertos for piano and orchestra, though he arranged a handful of them for piano and string quartet. As a practical matter, when musicians were scarce, these chamber transcriptions were a lot easier to program than the full orchestral pieces. Furthermore, Mozart stood to gain from their publication, which increased the interest of amateur players. Even so, though the solo piano part was kept the same, the quartet's simplified accompaniment sounds less robust than the original orchestration for strings, winds, and timpani. While these are Mozart's authentic arrangements and of special interest to collectors, who might want to give them a fair hearing.