Tonally ravishing, musically radiant, technically meticulous and intellectually probing, Mitsuko Uchida excels in every aspect of modern pianism. Born in Japan in 1948, Uchida was trained in Vienna, where her teachers (principally Wilhelm Kempff and Stefan Askenase) instilled the classic virtues of profound structural pacing and searching behind the notes to discover each work’s inner soul. Her Mozart and Schubert combine elegance, grace and refinement with a profound sense of each note’s place in the musical universe, qualities that also illuminate her playing of the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg and Webern) and the music of her “beloved friend” György Kurtág. Careful to limit her concert schedule to around 55 appearances a year, Uchida sees herself as a perpetual student, continually evolving and rethinking her core repertoire. This is exemplified by her second recorded Mozart concerto series (2011 onward), directing the Cleveland Orchestra from the keyboard, which possesses a new transformative warmth, charm and outgoing bonhomie.