Mozart piano sonatas

Started by Mark, September 20, 2007, 05:16:34 AM

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Mandryka

Quote from: Omicron9 on January 17, 2018, 09:14:15 AM
Greetings and a happy 2018.

To follow up, I've purchased two "complete" recordings:

Modern: Daniel Barenboim.  I feel as if he is adhering to the score and not putting his stamp on it, which is what I was seeking.

HIP: Kristian Bezuidenhout.  I enjoy his readings, and the PF on the recording sounds lovely, although in spots there are some intonation issues.  Why do labels, performers, and producers allow this?  But overall, I really like it. Maybe he says something about the temperament in the booklet.

Thanks to all for their help, suggestions, and patience.  :)

Kind regards,
-09

I'd be interested if you'd give an example where these intonation issues are clear - just because of Mahlerian's point - if he has chosen a non equal tuning and that's making unexpected dissonances, it could make quite a difference.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Marc

Quote from: Mandryka on January 17, 2018, 11:46:46 AM
I'd be interested if you'd give an example where these intonation issues are clear - just because of Mahlerian's point - if he has chosen a non equal tuning and that's making unexpected dissonances, it could make quite a difference.

Here's a Gramophone review of Volumes 5-7:

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/mozart-keyboard-music-vols-5-6-7

[...] Bezuidenhout's stealth weapon, though, may be the unequal temperament of his copy of an 1805 Anton Walter instrument. The popular notion that equal temperament reigned exclusively after JS Bach just isn't true. Experiments with alternative tuning [...] can be colouristic revelations, which is also true of Bezuidenhout. [...]

Marc

I must admit that (apologies to Omicron9), whilst listening to a handful of Barenboim's Mozart sonatas (a friend of mine had the set), I didn't really like it. Even though it must be some 25 years ago, I recall saying something like: "he's playing like a rather inflexible piano teacher or his/her most well behaved pupil: right hand is melody and thus louder, left hand is accompaniment and therefore softer."

I never returned to them.

Barenboim isn't my first pick in Mozart's piano concertos either, but IMO he shows more fantasy and imagination there.

The One

Quote from: Marc on January 18, 2018, 02:57:24 AM
Barenboim's Mozart sonatas (a friend of mine had the set), I didn't really like it. Even though it must be some 25 years ago, I recall saying something like: "he's playing like a rather inflexible piano teacher or his/her most well behaved pupil: right hand is melody and thus louder, left hand is accompaniment and therefore softer."

Barenboim isn't my first pick in Mozart's piano concertos either, but IMO he shows more fantasy and imagination there.

I'm more negative about Barenboim's piano. I don't like anything he produced after du Pre and they are the only ones I keep featuring him. I guess I want to say he lacks imagination and is more like a machine. I don't know.

RebLem

I have 6 sets of the Mozart piano sonatas.  In order of preference, they are Walter Gieseking, Alicia de Larrocha, Lili Kraus, Christoph Eschenbach, Klara Wurtz, and Mitsuko Uchida.  Gieseking has the best command of overall structure, Alicia de Larracha is best at the kind of felictious ornamentation detail that makes certain passages expecially piquant and delightful.  Lili Krauss has a better feel than most for the ambience of the early classical period.
"Don't drink and drive; you might spill it."--J. Eugene Baker, aka my late father.

George

Quote from: Bogey on September 22, 2007, 08:30:22 AM
Yet to find one that I enjoy more. [Uchida]



Now enjoying CD 1 of Uchida's set.

I was in the mood tonight for some Mozart piano sonatas. I started with Geiseking, who seemed "old" and somewhat bland. Then switched to Kraus's mono set which sounded too frenetic for me tonight. Then grabbed Uchida and she seems just right. Hers was my first set.

"I can't live without music, because music is life." - Yvonne Lefébure

Mandryka

#806


Six things strike me about Colin Tilney's performances here

1. He uses a very radiant and muscular sounding piano, which has coherent timbres in high and low registers.
2. He punctuates the music in a very frank way, the articulation is clear
3. The general style leans more towards being natural and spontaneous than towards being decorated and embellished.
4. The overall general feeling is joyful
5. In some mysterious and paradoxical way, he manages to be both expressive and restrained
6. He has a knack for making the structure of the whole piece evident

I could well understand that someone would find them mechanical. But I think they're well worth exploring!


(Well recorded) (On Qobuz terribly tagged)
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#807
Refined and reflective performance of K333 here

https://www.youtube.com/v/U2zzju3nS_w
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

vers la flamme

#809
Bump. I bought my first complete set of the Mozart sonatas recently; Christoph Eschenbach. I love it. I mostly love his poetic, yet very articulate, phrasing, it's very different from Uchida, who I've heard and also loved in Mozart. I expect I will buy her full set in due time as I like what I've heard so much. Now there is another set I have been hearing about, Maria João Pires on Brilliant. To those who have heard and liked it, how might you describe it in a few words? I can't seem to find much in the way of samples to listen to, but it is available very cheaply through JPC it seems. I may take a gamble on it.

As for fortepiano recordings, I'm about to give up entirely. I have Jos Van Immerseel's Mozart: The Vienna Years 2CD and while I actually like some of his recordings, performance wise, his piano sounds terrible to my ears. Anyway it seems to me that this music sounds better on a modern piano, but I know there are those here who would crucify me for saying this.

My girlfriend, who is otherwise a huge Claudio Arrau fan, warned me against his Mozart sonatas. Any opinions there?

I have barely scratched the surface on this body of work, I think there is a lot there.

Edit: Disregard that on the Pires, the cheap copies are gone unfortunately  :(

André

Mozart's sonatas can survive (and benefit from) very different approaches. Seriousness does not preclude fun and beauty, and delicacy does not preclude depth and gravitas. Every good interpreter will use his own artistic make up to offer his/her own Brand of Mozart playing. Il like Kraus, Brendel, Arrau, Badura-Skoda, but also Hamelin, Haebler, Pires and Eschenbach. On fortepiano I have Bart van Oort and Ludwig Semerjian. Both are totally different from one another. Semerjian has some eye-popping interpretive choices, and why not?

Mandryka

#811
Quote from: vers la flamme on March 01, 2020, 01:29:39 PM
Bump. I bought my first complete set of the Mozart sonatas recently; Christoph Eschenbach. I love it. I mostly love his poetic, yet very articulate, phrasing, it's very different from Uchida, who I've heard and also loved in Mozart. I expect I will buy her full set in due time as I like what I've heard so much. Now there is another set I have been hearing about, Maria João Pires on Brilliant. To those who have heard and liked it, how might you describe it in a few words? I can't seem to find much in the way of samples to listen to, but it is available very cheaply through JPC it seems. I may take a gamble on it.

As for fortepiano recordings, I'm about to give up entirely. I have Jos Van Immerseel's Mozart: The Vienna Years 2CD and while I actually like some of his recordings, performance wise, his piano sounds terrible to my ears. Anyway it seems to me that this music sounds better on a modern piano, but I know there are those here who would crucify me for saying this.

My girlfriend, who is otherwise a huge Claudio Arrau fan, warned me against his Mozart sonatas. Any opinions there?

I have barely scratched the surface on this body of work, I think there is a lot there.

Edit: Disregard that on the Pires, the cheap copies are gone unfortunately  :(

Try Peter Donohoe.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Florestan

Quote from: vers la flamme on March 01, 2020, 01:29:39 PM
Edit: Disregard that on the Pires, the cheap copies are gone unfortunately  :(

That's a pity because it's an excellent set (originally released by Denon): poetic, fluent and poised. A bit on the melifluous side because of the beautiful, almost sensual sound of the piano but for me this is a bonus. One of the best sets imo.

Maybe try this instead, it's in the same sensual, melifluous vein but a bit more romanticized than Pires (which I don't mind either) --- and of course if you can put up with his trademark moaning&groaning. He wrote the liner notes himself and they show him to be a sensitive and refined person.


Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

vers la flamme

Quote from: André on March 01, 2020, 01:54:46 PM
Mozart's sonatas can survive (and benefit from) very different approaches. Seriousness does not preclude fun and beauty, and delicacy does not preclude depth and gravitas. Every good interpreter will use his own artistic make up to offer his/her own Brand of Mozart playing. Il like Kraus, Brendel, Arrau, Badura-Skoda, but also Hamelin, Haebler, Pires and Eschenbach. On fortepiano I have Bart van Oort and Ludwig Semerjian. Both are totally different from one another. Semerjian has some eye-popping interpretive choices, and why not?

I'm listening to the Bart van Oort now. Wow, I like the sound of his fortepiano a lot better than Jos Van Immerseel, of whose Mozart I have a 2CD called "The Vienna Years", which is just about the only HIP Mozart I listen to. But I may have to pick up this van Oort, which is cheap, so I can have the option of a full set on a nice sounding period piano.

Que

Quote from: vers la flamme on March 03, 2020, 02:53:15 AM
I'm listening to the Bart van Oort now. Wow, I like the sound of his fortepiano a lot better than Jos Van Immerseel, of whose Mozart I have a 2CD called "The Vienna Years", which is just about the only HIP Mozart I listen to. But I may have to pick up this van Oort, which is cheap, so I can have the option of a full set on a nice sounding period piano.

Van Oort is a wonderful set.  :)

Q

premont

Quote from: Que on March 03, 2020, 11:05:41 AM
Van Oort is a wonderful set.  :)

Q

We seem to agree once more. The two period Mozart piano sonata sets, I haven't culled, are van Oort's and Badura Skoda's.
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staxomega

#816
I finished listening to all of Paul Badura-Skoda's Astree cycle last night, this has very much changed my opinion of Mozart's piano music more to the positive. As usual I love the sound of his vintage fortepianos, IMO these have so much more character than ones that sound like modern pianos. I personally greatly prefer this to the Euroarts one that Sony reissued a couple of years ago.

8/25/22 edit: I've replaced the three I'd written about here with Maria Joao Pires Denon (Brilliant Classics) cycle for one on modern instrument. The Lili Kraus and Ingrid Haebler (Denon) did not fare so well on repeated listenings.

SonicMan46

#817
TTT After 2 Years!  Just reviewed this thread back to about 2015 and surprised that I had not posted - been collecting and culling these works for decades - now own the first 4 sets shown below, split evenly between PIs and MIs - pleased w/ these performances (and the reviewers seem to like Endres & Pienaar on MIs - attached w/ one BBC 'stinker' for Pienaar) - BUT seems like many here like Pires on Denon (licensed to Brilliant) - for those knowing these performances does she take a 'different approach' as implied in one of the reviews?

Also, there appears to be a new release for us PI aficionados, last pic below w/ Robert Levin on Mozart's own fortepiano (assume restored?) - more info HERE - Amazon US release date is mid-next month priced at $32 - any comments?  Dave :)

 

   



Mandryka

Try Giovanni de Cecco. But not while you've got other performances going round in your head, you've got to do a bit of unlearning.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

SonicMan46

Quote from: Mandryka on August 26, 2022, 09:24:20 AM
Try Giovanni de Cecco. But not while you've got other performances going round in your head, you've got to do a bit of unlearning.

Hi Mandryka - listening to Endres & Pienaar yesterday and still enjoy - now Giovanni De Cecco I do not know so today setup a Spotify playlist shown below of the 5 recordings offered - on a clavichord - listening now and usually a fan of the instrument (if a good reconstruction and recorded well, often a problem in my experience) - Cecco's instrument sounds quite good most of the time but can be 'muffled' in the lower registries - cannot find any reviews or descriptions of the clavichord(s) used - looking forward to the recordings of Robert Levin.  Thanks.  Dave :)