Mozart

Started by facehugger, April 06, 2007, 02:37:52 PM

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Karl Henning

Revisiting the "Haydn" Quartets as recorded by the Amadeus Quartet.  I certainly find the K. 387, 421 & 458 readily ingratiating, so far.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Karl Henning

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on June 14, 2020, 09:08:09 AM
Revisiting the "Haydn" Quartets as recorded by the Amadeus Quartet.  I certainly find the K. 387, 421 & 458 readily ingratiating, so far.


The fact is, and perhaps this is partly because I'm fresh from two weeks of "speed composing" a quartet of my own (not a string quartet) but this is the most affable I have found the K. 465 (the "Dissonance") to date.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

vers la flamme

Mozart's piano sonatas are awesome. Anyone been listening lately? I have the Christoph Eschenbach set on DG, makes me want to hear more of his playing. He does a really good job with this stuff.

I'm vaguely considering picking up additional sets, maybe Mitsuko Uchida and then Bart van Oort for a PI alternative. Mozart sonatas sets are dirt cheap.

Mahlerian

Quote from: vers la flamme on June 21, 2020, 05:24:24 AM
Mozart's piano sonatas are awesome. Anyone been listening lately? I have the Christoph Eschenbach set on DG, makes me want to hear more of his playing. He does a really good job with this stuff.

I'm vaguely considering picking up additional sets, maybe Mitsuko Uchida and then Bart van Oort for a PI alternative. Mozart sonatas sets are dirt cheap.

I have Uchida's in this set:


https://www.amazon.com/Piano-Music-Complete-Mozart-9/dp/B0000501PH/

If you can find a deal on it, I think it's a good choice. It has Uchida's sonatas, all the sets of variations performed by Ingrid Haebler, the sonatas for two pianos and piano four hands, and other discs of miscellaneous keyboard works performed by a few different performers.
"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

71 dB

Quote from: vers la flamme on June 21, 2020, 05:24:24 AM
Mozart's piano sonatas are awesome. Anyone been listening lately? I have the Christoph Eschenbach set on DG, makes me want to hear more of his playing. He does a really good job with this stuff.

I'm vaguely considering picking up additional sets, maybe Mitsuko Uchida and then Bart van Oort for a PI alternative. Mozart sonatas sets are dirt cheap.

I have them on the Brilliant Classics Complete Works 170 CD boxset (Klára Würtz) and also one Naxos CD of K.281, K.309, K.331 and K.576 (Jenö Jandó).

I do like these sonatas, but I must confess I haven't been listening to them a lot or even lately. There's just so much great music it's so difficult to give all the music the attention it's deserves...  :P
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Mandryka

#1265
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 21, 2020, 05:24:24 AM
Mozart's piano sonatas are awesome. Anyone been listening lately? I have the Christoph Eschenbach set on DG, makes me want to hear more of his playing. He does a really good job with this stuff.

I'm vaguely considering picking up additional sets, maybe Mitsuko Uchida and then Bart van Oort for a PI alternative. Mozart sonatas sets are dirt cheap.

The one to look out for I think is Leon McCawley.

Re Eschenbach, may try to find his Hammerklavier (yuck!) and best of all the Schumann duets where he's with Mr and Mrs Fischer Dieskau and Peter Schreier.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

premont

Quote from: Que on March 08, 2020, 05:44:45 AM
I also have this this great set and supplemented it with the other recordings of the complete keyboard works from the Brilliant set. Got hold of the first edition of boxsets with separate CDs, and sold off the duplicating content of the Van Oort boxset.
Bottom line: the "extras" outside of the sonatas contain real gemms, and are well worth anyone's trouble.

I like the Brautigam too: very energetic and with panache. But the overpowering is more than a tad IMO.
His approach is ultimate too "pushy" and heavy handed, glossing over the elegance and witty aspects of Mozart. Got rid of it.

I do hope Naïve will reissue Badura-Skoda, hopes that have been hightened by the recent LvB release!  :)

I did admire Lubimov's muscial integrity and intelligence. But the (my) thruth is that the guy is not a natural Mozartian.... I found it oddly stiff and angular, and overthought, lacking in a light touch. You can tell Lubimov is great in Schubert. Got rid of this set too.

More than coincidence? I have kept van Oort and Badura-Skoda and culled Brautigam and Lubimov for exactly the reasons you mention.
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vers la flamme

Quote from: Mandryka on June 21, 2020, 07:25:29 AM
The one to look out for I think is Leon McCawley.

Look out for him I shall. Never heard that name before in my life.

Quote from: Mandryka on June 21, 2020, 07:25:29 AM
Re Eschenbach, may try to find his Hammerklavier (yuck!) and best of all the Schumann duets where he's with Mr and Mrs Fischer Dieskau and Peter Schreier.

I'll have to look out for that Hammerklavier, even with your less-than-fully-credible recommendation  ;D I'll look out for that Schumann as well. I know Eschenbach also backed Renée Fleming on a Schubert Lieder recital disc, but I'm unsure whether I'd want to hear a voice like hers in Schubert Lieder.

Florestan

If you can put up with his moaning&groaning, this is excellent.

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

Que

#1269
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 21, 2020, 05:24:24 AM
Mozart's piano sonatas are awesome. Anyone been listening lately? I have the Christoph Eschenbach set on DG, makes me want to hear more of his playing. He does a really good job with this stuff.

I'm vaguely considering picking up additional sets, maybe Mitsuko Uchida and then Bart van Oort for a PI alternative. Mozart sonatas sets are dirt cheap.

Stick to the Van Oort idea!  :)
For a modern instrument version consider Maria Jão Pires' 1st cycle on Denon, reissued on Brilliant.

Uchida...I'm the contrarian here... to me it sounds artificial, mannered and lifeless.

Q

Florestan

Quote from: Que on June 21, 2020, 10:42:33 AM
Maria Jão Pires' 1st cycle on Denon, reissued on Brilliant.

One of the very best sets available.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

MusicTurner

#1271
Regarding the Mozart sonatas, you might want to look into Deyanova's or Würtz sets, often cheap and quite good.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7961024--mozart-complete-piano-sonatas
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7924798--mozart-piano-sonatas-1-18
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8678432--mozart-complete-piano-sonatas

There are many fine sets out there which I haven't explored though. Also had/have Oort and Klien, but wouldn't go for them, plus many individual recordings.

For a totally different, more romanticized Mozart than Pires, for example the selection by Yudina (poor sound, probably on you-tube too)
https://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Piano-Sonatas-Fantasias-Yudina/dp/B000S14T1C
K310 finale - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=916jH0-JPBE

Here's Eschenbach
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7930996--mozart-piano-sonatas-1-18

premont

Quote from: Que on June 21, 2020, 10:42:33 AM
Stick to the Van Oort idea!  :)
For a modern instrument version consider Maria Jão Pires' 1st cycle on Denon, reissued on Brilliant.

Uchida...I'm the contrarian here... to me it sounds artificial, mannered and lifeless.

Q

Once again, this is precisely what I would have said. :)
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Karl Henning

Quote from: 71 dB on June 21, 2020, 07:23:54 AM
I have them on the Brilliant Classics Complete Works 170 CD boxset (Klára Würtz) and also one Naxos CD of K.281, K.309, K.331 and K.576 (Jenö Jandó).

I do like these sonatas, but I must confess I haven't been listening to them a lot or even lately. There's just so much great music it's so difficult to give all the music the attention it's deserves...  :P

True. A great problem to have, really.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Que

Quote from: (: premont :) on June 21, 2020, 11:06:50 AM
Once again, this is precisely what I would have said. :)

Cannot be coincidence!  :D

JBS

Quote from: vers la flamme on June 21, 2020, 08:10:26 AM
Look out for him I shall. Never heard that name before in my life.

I'll have to look out for that Hammerklavier, even with your less-than-fully-credible recommendation  ;D I'll look out for that Schumann as well. I know Eschenbach also backed Renée Fleming on a Schubert Lieder recital disc, but I'm unsure whether I'd want to hear a voice like hers in Schubert Lieder.

Eschenbach was the pianist in one installment of Goerne's Schubert series on Harmonia Mundi, if you are interested in him as accompianist. It's a double CD in which Eschenbach plays D960.
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Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

vers la flamme

Hmm, Deyanova sounds like a good idea. I have some of her Schubert as part of the Nimbus Schubert box set (which is great!) and I would expect similar success from her playing Mozart.

Re: Uchida, "mannered", "lifeless"; what? Are we listening to the same thing? I definitely do not agree with that assessment. My introduction to Mozart's piano sonatas was through Glenn Gould—now that's what I would call mannered and lifeless (though I do love his playing in other repertoire), & it wasn't until I heard Uchida's recordings that I first realized that there really was something special in this music, something that does not come across in Gould's trivial performances. Thankfully there is such a wealth of great Mozart sonata recordings on the market that no one need be forced to listen to an interpretation they don't agree with!

JBS

Quote from: vers la flamme on June 21, 2020, 03:12:33 PM
Hmm, Deyanova sounds like a good idea. I have some of her Schubert as part of the Nimbus Schubert box set (which is great!) and I would expect similar success from her playing Mozart.

Re: Uchida, "mannered", "lifeless"; what? Are we listening to the same thing? I definitely do not agree with that assessment. My introduction to Mozart's piano sonatas was through Glenn Gould—now that's what I would call mannered and lifeless (though I do love his playing in other repertoire), & it wasn't until I heard Uchida's recordings that I first realized that there really was something special in this music, something that does not come across in Gould's trivial performances. Thankfully there is such a wealth of great Mozart sonata recordings on the market that no one need be forced to listen to an interpretation they don't agree with!

Well, Gould explicitly said he adopted a willful approach to Mozart, and that he was not very sympathetic to the music. I wouldn't call them trivial, but almost everything he did could be called mannered.  I might call his Mozart perverse.

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Madiel

The Uchida set is generally well thought of.
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MusicTurner

#1279
Quote from: vers la flamme on June 21, 2020, 03:12:33 PM
Hmm, Deyanova sounds like a good idea. I have some of her Schubert as part of the Nimbus Schubert box set (which is great!) and I would expect similar success from her playing Mozart.

Re: Uchida, "mannered", "lifeless"; what? Are we listening to the same thing? I definitely do not agree with that assessment. My introduction to Mozart's piano sonatas was through Glenn Gould—now that's what I would call mannered and lifeless (though I do love his playing in other repertoire), & it wasn't until I heard Uchida's recordings that I first realized that there really was something special in this music, something that does not come across in Gould's trivial performances. Thankfully there is such a wealth of great Mozart sonata recordings on the market that no one need be forced to listen to an interpretation they don't agree with!

Yes, Gould is indeed extreme, at times mechanical;
but I like him in the few smaller pieces he recorded, the Fantasia K397, where he seems more involved
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d07r_E_8Pc

and the Fantasia K475
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTrGaisDWP0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS1Ds5Tk5s0