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Mozart: The Complete Piano Sonatas


B. Goren.

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Certainly not Glenn Gould! He expressed his disrespect for Mozart's compositions and his judgment that these pieces were inferior in quality, and did some funny stuff with them when he recorded (only part of) the sonatas. He had no deeper relationship to Mozart's music - I still have the LP box set - if you want it .....

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I have the Brautigam set, and it's wonderful (be sure to get the complete box shown by Mike, which includes the variations--there are also separate BIS Brautigam boxes of just the sonatas OR the variations). But Brautigam uses a fortepiano which, although authentic, is not to everyone's taste. I also have Uchida's set, and recommend it--she has a nice touch with Mozart (although others, e.g., clem, may disagree).

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Here's a link for the Uchida set (also on modern piano):

Uchida set

It's a bit more expensive than the Vox sets recommended by Chuck, but in case you want to compare them.

Amazon doesn't have any sound samples for the Uchida set, but you can find some here (along with another review).

Thanks Rom. Uchida sounds great.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 months later...

Don't know if these are available still, but I have the five volumes released by Virgin Classics back in the early nineties performed by Jean-Bernard Pommier. I think his treatment of Mozart's piano sonatas are especially good.

Edit to include one of the covers. They're all the same except each volume has a different color logo.

post-5045-1198076116_thumb.jpg

Edited by Holy Ghost
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  • 3 years later...

I'm starting to amass a set of recordings of the Mozart sonatas.

Heard a Brendel disc and liked it very much, and also dug Klien/Voxbox samples.

So I'm going with Klien Vol. I and a couple of Brendel CDs for starters, though that approach will likely lead to a bit of duplication and incompleteness.

(We seem to be spoiled for choice here, as there are loads of recordings by excellent/great pianists at super-budget price. I don't have the time/budget/inclination to get involved in ranking the many sets.)

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** ALL ** Mozart on modern grand piano gives you less than half the music.

Uchida is horrible.

Brendel is dreary.

Schiff sucks tho' he's gotten better since then.

Zoltan Kocsis or Dezno Ranki are in fact very good-- grab 'em if you see used.

Of common stuff Klein is subtly tolerable but Euros will do better with Zacharias on EMI, as well as stray sonatas by Schnabel and Cassadesus; forget Edwin Fischer even if Chuck wills it otherwise.

Forget Barenboim, though he's a decent accompanist (Wolf) and conductor (Busoni) sometimes.

I will strongly disagree with the esteemed Mike Weil re: Gould, which-- true-- ain't the place to go hear tinkly-tink Wolfgang but is superior execution of counterfactual interpretation. Listen to the dozens of polite turds in K. 310 and Gould is like a great hand job in Finnish sauna-- blessed release!

Leon McCawley's integrale on Avie is fine; you might know his superlative Barber disc on Virgin a few years ago but still, he can't triumph over the boring instrument.

***

Bilson is #1 choice, still, the sonatas

Brautigan is also good but I'd get Bilson + supplement Brautigan in variations; Laura Alvini is also swell in variations.

recently, Kristian Bezuidenhout is great so far-- one small label, two Harmonia Mundi, one HM + Mullehjans in vn sonatas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV8RY75t888

Marcia Hadjimarkos from Iowa (that will make Chuck happy) is fantastic but she's onlt recorded one cd.

Andreas Staier kills his two discs on HM + was part of Les Adieux in the pn quartets.

Siegbert Rampe has a series of all Moz solo keyboard on MDG, even uses clavichord some but with all the juvenalia, it's hard to recommend for regular listening.

***

in the PC's Bilson, Sofronitzki and Staier are King, Queen, King. Levin is interesting. Immerseel is a snooze.

Perahia, Brendel, Uchida et al are fucking butchers.

Casadesus and Schnabel save what's salvageable.

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  • 1 year later...

in the PC's ...

Perahia ... et al are fucking butchers.

Really? I found them very good!

But my favorites are Schnabel, the few I have by Gieseking (488, 491), Edwin Fischer, Rubinstein doing 491 with Krips (the others with Wallenstein are good but nowhere near Krips) and what I've heard so far of Casadesus was mighty fine, too (got to dig deeper there, the cheapo Sony 5 CD set is waiting to be explored), then Gould's 491, and some of Clara Haskil's, too.

As for the sonatas ...

Schnabel

Gould

Pires

Gulda

also some by Gieseking, Solomon, Edwin Fischer, Ciccolini ... would love to get that Gieseking EMI box, but it costs an arm and a leg these days ...

got a few by Staier but haven't really warmed to them ... Bezuidenhout might suit me better, I've seen him performing two piano concertos with the Freiburger Barockorchester on TV (playing Hammerklavier) and that was mighty good, I found.

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The Christoph Eschenbach set on DG is really good, and at the price it's available right now on amazon everybody should have a copy. If you don't insist on modern sound, look no further than the Mieczyslaw Horszowski set in 2 volumes on Arbiter. Probably out of print, but available in mp3 format from emusic.com.

Edited by bogdan101
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Don't know Eschenbach the pianist yet ... last summer/fall he was on the radio doing Beethoven #5 with Lang Lang and it was utterly boring. Never felt like checking out more.

Anyway, I'm happy with what I've got, but I would definitely like to hear more of Gieseking's recordings (but I'm not that inclined to buy the two cheapo boxes on some shady label, Andromeda, I think?).

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The Christoph Eschenbach set on DG is really good, and at the price it's available right now on amazon everybody should have a copy. If you don't insist on modern sound, look no further than the Mieczyslaw Horszowski set in 2 volumes on Arbiter. Probably out of print, but available in mp3 format from emusic.com.

I had the Eschenbach and found it to be too clipped and Germanic. I'm very happy with Perlemuter; though sound quality is average or a bit below average mid-'50s mono, savvy and sensibility are top notch. I'd avoid the mincing Uchida. For an interesting other view, try Anthony Newman on fortepiano (three volumes, available used on Amazon for about $1.50 per disc, but listen first if you can).

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I'd avoid the mincing Uchida.

Harsh words, harsh words. Uchida is a London fixture and I'm a loyalist for that reason... her recorded Schoenberg is an interesting meeting of sensibilities, and I am always grateful to hear her roll up and bang out a Mozart piano concerto, but I admit to not really loving her famous Mozart and Schubert recordings.

And that's putting it mildly.

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  • 11 months later...

Certainly not Glenn Gould! He expressed his disrespect for Mozart's compositions and his judgment that these pieces were inferior in quality, and did some funny stuff with them when he recorded (only part of) the sonatas. He had no deeper relationship to Mozart's music - I still have the LP box set - if you want it .....

I totally agree with Mike. As a matter of fact, everything I've heard Gould do I found horrible, I avoid his performances like the plague.

I have 2 versions of the complete Mozart piano sonatas, one by Ronald Brautigam, the other by Maria João Pires (her later DG cycle), but, as I said earlier, these works are not really my cup of tea.

Edited by J.A.W.
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