Keyboardist 's series of piano concertos with the has been slow to develop, with several years before each new volume appears. This gives time to evolve his approach, and he has apparently been inspired by strong sales (this release landed on best-seller lists late in the summer of 2022) to try new things as the series develops. Here, he serves as his own conductor; an earlier release in the series featured with the baton, but the orchestra by now knows what wants and delivers beautiful blends and solo playing. He continues and even expands his use of ornamentation this time around, and once again, he inserts the piano into orchestral passages as a kind of nod to the keyboard's earlier continuo function. He is subtle in his use of this technique, it is true, but this seems especially questionable in the first movement of the , where takes the revolutionary step, still resounding three decades later in 's , of incorporating the piano into the opening material. Having tinkling along behind the strings vitiates the contrast inherent in 's conception. As he has earlier, uses a small orchestra (four each of first and second violins) and takes brisk tempos, probably too brisk for some while bracing and vigorous for others. 's reading of the central movement of , bringing out its similarity to an operatic scene and ornamenting it accordingly, works beautifully; his quick reading of the Andante of the , perhaps less so. His fortepiano, a copy of a instrument from 1805, is sharp and cutting, and it stands up to the problems of articulation the pianist poses for himself. 's sound from the Ensemblehaus Freiburg is excellently clear, and even those not enamored of every aspect of what does will find this album well executed and well recorded. ~ James Manheim