Mitsuko Uchida studied piano as a young child, but her more serious musical training began in earnest after her family moved to Vienna when Uchida was 12 years old. There she enrolled in the Vienna Academy of Music and took lessons with celebrated pianist Richard Hauser, giving her first recital at age 14.
When her father’s job as a Diplomat moved the family again, Uchida stayed behind in Vienna to continue her musical training, and she eventually became a student of Wilhelm Kempff and other famous pianists.
Ms. Uchida lived there for another decade, earning awards and recognition on the competition circuit, and moved to London in the early 1970s.
So… the spirit of Mozart intersected with Mitsuko Uchida from the earliest time of her life. In part, this explains the amazing beauty that she brings toMozart’s compositions.
Listen now as she plays the Piano Concerto #22 by Mozart:
