Recordings That You Are Considering

[aligreto]

For modern instruments I don't think anyone can come close to Kraus (Erato or M&A—not the later one on Sony). I'd also recommend her over any period instruments performer except perhaps Jos van Immerseel (only the last 4-5 sonatas). Sort of makes the whole "youthful freshness vs. more considered approach" question moot, as well—you can have both in the same performance >_>

Thank you for that contribution; Lili Kraus is another one that I had not thought of and have not heard.

[aligreto]

I like Gulda's Mozart tapes. All wrong I know, but he makes me aware of Mozart therevolutionary.

Now comments like that just intrigue me. I must see if I can hear something of what you say on YouTube 

[Jo498]

I like Gulda's Mozart tapes. All wrong I know, but he makes me aware of Mozart therevolutionary.

I think that mainly the sound is wrong, otherwise Gulda is quite idiomatic. (I heard him play the finale of K 576 as an encore in the mid-1990s and it was wonderfully lively and "natural.)
There are a handful of pieces availabe in better sound, mainly 570, 576 and the c minor fantasia on DG, roughly contemporary with the Mozart tapes and K 331 and 333 on Amadeo, probably a few years earlier.

As I probably wrote before, I am somewhat puzzled that no tapes from Bavarian or Austrian radio have come up yet because Gulda supposedly played all or most of the sonatas in concerts in Munich (and probably elsewhere) around the time of the "Mozart tapes" (ca. 1980).

[Spineur]

Another great mozartian who plays with lots of maturity and musicianship is Alfred Brendel.  An of course the 1955 mono recording of Clara Haskil are another must have.

Actually Mozart piano sonatas, there is lots of nice recording to choose from.  His violin and piano sonatas are absolute gems.  I had the Szymon Goldberg/Radu Lupu in LP.  At the time of recording Szymon Golberg was pretty old (68 or so) and his technique had occasional lapses.  But what musicianship!  Really marvelous.  I tried to replace them with with Rachel Podger Garry Cooper integrals
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In spite of all the praise in the specialized press, this was a big letdown for me.  There is a Maria Pires/Augustin Dumay CD (OOP but availiable as download) which was the only good alternative I found.
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Actually my recommendation would be stay with the Golberg-Lupu recordings.

[Jo498]

A very nice (and it used to be cheap in an EMI france issue) recording of the mature violin sonatas (K 296 onwards, some of the fragments are missing, though) in good modern sound is by Frank Peter Zimmermann with Alexander Lonquich. And try the bunch (live classics and EMI) recorded by Oleg Kagan with Richter.

[Spineur]

I'll try the Zimmerman/Lonquich CD.  I can get it for 6€!!!.  I heard some of Kogan/Richter excerpt in a DVD devoted to Richter.  Not Richter at his best.  He was pretty old at the time and as he himself acknowledges,  'I never found the key to Mozart'.

[prémont]

I do not know Pires' DG cycle of Mozart piano sonatas, but agree with Que on the Denon/Brilliant cycle.

Brautigam's Mozart cycle is IMO very unattractive, heavy-handed and unrefined, and doing ALL the repeats without much variation he prolongs the agony unnecessarily.

I much prefer Oort and Badura-Skoda on PI to Brautigam. Do not know Bezuidenhout's cycle, but by now (having parted with 5 others - Brautigam's cycle among them) I own 6 cycles (Oort, Badura-Skoda, Lubimov, Pires[Brilliant], Klien and Endres and 1/3 Bilson). Must be enough for this music.

[Jo498]

Zimmerman/Lonquich are in the issue I have 4 discs + 1 with Lonquich playing solo piano pieces (also commendable because some of these are not so frequently recorded but at least as interesting as many of the piano sonatas)
The Kagan/Richter I have in mind is from the 1970s and early 80s and Richter was not very old then (early/mid 60s); but they are also fairly intense and maybe too "heavy" for many listeners.

[Que]

Brautigam's Mozart cycle is IMO very unattractive, heavy-handed and unrefined, and doing ALL the repeats without much variation he prolongs the agony unnecessarily.

There, you said it....quite agree....

I much prefer Oort and Badura-Skoda on PI to Brautigam. Do not know Bezuidenhout's cycle, but by now (having parted with 5 others - Brautigam's cycle among them) I own 6 cycles (Oort, Badura-Skoda, Lubimov, Pires[Brilliant], Klien and Endres and 1/3 Bilson). Must be enough for this music.

I also love the set by Van Oort!  Very much so.... For some reason opinions are diveded on that one...
Unfortunately don't have Badura-Skoda  (on Naïve playing a Schantz, I presume). Lubimov doesn't "get" Mozart IMO, sounds decidedly Beethovian to my ears....
Bilson is another unknown, though I definitely would like to hear it.

Q

[prémont]

Lubimov doesn't "get" Mozart IMO, sounds decidedly Beethovian to my ears....
Bilson is another unknown, though I definitely would like to hear it.

Yes, I also find Lubimov a bit "un-Mozartian". A question of personal taste of course. I have considered to part with his set, and the only reason that I did not acquire Bilson's complete set is, that it is very expensive, and I prefer to spend my money upon music I listen to more often than Mozart's.

[Mandryka]

I have complete cycles of the Mozart Piano Sonatas by Lubimov, Uchida, van Oort and Wurtz. Two of these are obviously played on a modern instrument and two are played on a period instrument. My inclination, in general, is to opt for a period performance but this situation is a problem for me because in the piano music of Mozart I prefer to listen to a modern instrument based on what I have heard so far. I am not convinced that, in this exceptional situation, the piano music is best served on a period instrument. These things are obviously subjective but I feel that the sparkle in the character of the music and of the composer is best reflected in the timbre and sonorities of a modern instrument. However, I have read good things of the Brautigam cycle and I would like to elicit your opinion please.

I think that you will find Brautigam won't give you many new insights into what the music can sound like.

[Florestan]

For Mozart's violin sonatas, I strongly recommend the Rachel Podger / Gary Cooper cycle not least because it is the only one really complete and includes the early sonatas which are as bit as good as the late ones.



But, but, but... to these ears, the Anne-Sophie Mutter / Lambert Orkis cycle is by far the best (ie, dramatic and passionate) when it comes to the late sonatas. Caveat: as non / anti - HIP as it gets.



The next best one is the Schneiderhan / Seemann cycle. Honorary mention for Szigeti / Horszowski, Szell and Henryk Szeryng / Ingrid Haebler.







A very good HIP cycle is the Luc Devos / Sigiswald Kuijken one.



I also own the Goldberg / Lupu set but have not listened to it yet.

[aligreto]

....  And of course the 1955 mono recording of Clara Haskil are another must have....

I did look at Haskil but, and I may well be very wrong here, I cannot see that she has recorded all of the Piano Sonatas or at least I cannot find a set or compilation.

[aligreto]

I do not know Pires' DG cycle of Mozart piano sonatas, but agree with Que on the Denon/Brilliant cycle.

Brautigam's Mozart cycle is IMO very unattractive, heavy-handed and unrefined, and doing ALL the repeats without much variation he prolongs the agony unnecessarily.

I much prefer Oort and Badura-Skoda on PI to Brautigam. Do not know Bezuidenhout's cycle, but by now (having parted with 5 others - Brautigam's cycle among them) I own 6 cycles (Oort, Badura-Skoda, Lubimov, Pires[Brilliant], Klien and Endres and 1/3 Bilson). Must be enough for this music.

OK, one definite decision that I have now made is that I will not pursue the purchase of the Brautigam set. I have now replaced that on my List with many other possibilites, all mentioned here

[kishnevi]

Arkivmusic has a selection of BIS CDs on sale for $9.99 US each.
A number of them are by composers of whom I currently have nothing.
The questions are, not merely which to get, but which to prioritize over the rest.  I want to cut at least two (to maintain the pretense of staying on budget), and 2 slots have already been assigned to Holmboe.
I will present them in batches

[kishnevi]

Batch 2

[kishnevi]

Batch 3

[Wanderer]

Arkivmusic has a selection of BIS CDs on sale for $9.99 US each.
A number of them are by composers of whom I currently have nothing.
The questions are, not merely which to get, but which to prioritize over the rest.  I want to cut at least two (to maintain the pretense of staying on budget), and 2 slots have already been assigned to Holmboe.
I will present them in batches

With your specifications, my suggestion would be to prioritize the Piano Concerto No.2 and the Violin Concerto discs over the other two. Are these the only Skalkottas BIS recordings on sale? The one with the Concerto for Two Violins (and 2 pianos) is also exceptional.

[king ubu]

late to the party, but re: Mozart, piano sonatas - big fan of the Bezuidenhout series (now complete, I think - 9 discs/vols., two of them released as two CD sets, not familiar with Brautigam's recordings (his Haydn I've started exploring and enjoy so far, though). As for Pires, I think I prefer her early cycle. And Gulda, too, and of course Kraus ...

Mozart's violin sonatas are probably even harder for me to pick ... Grumiaux/Haskil for one, Goldberg/Kraus, Szigeti/Horszowski (Szell on a few), Goldberg/Lupu ... haven't spent enough time with Boskovsky/Kraus and Szeryng/Haebler (and no time with Grumiaux/Klien) yet. As for HIP, the Podger/Cooper sounds great (but alas that box comes with zero info, they don't even bother to list recording dates), there's also a fine disc by Petra Müllejans (of Freiburger Barocker fame) and Bezuidenhout (who, to me, is really THE Mozartian of our time), and there are two fine sets using tangent piano: a two disc set by Anton Steck and Marieke Spans, as well as a single disc by Isabel Schau and Thomas Leinigner.

[André]

I'm AC/DC when it comes to Mozart violin sonatas. PI or MI?  As long as the music sings, I feel great. Among MI (probably old MI considering the age of the recordings) my preference is for Boskovsky/Kraus. On PI, Midori Sailer and Jos van Immerseel, or Breitman and Rivest.