BaL 24.11.12 & 19.10.13 Mozart's Piano Sonata no. 8 in A minor (K.310)

[Nick Armstrong]

I'm afraid I wasn't at all impressed with the Uchida. It sounded brash, as if she was trying to play in a Beethovenian rage.

Golly... Didn't strike me like that at all.. I mean to listen to her performance complete this weekend, I'll report back.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

In preparation for today's BaL, I sat down at the piano and played through this sonata. It was one one my Grade 8 pieces in 1967.

<Iamnotworthyemoticon>!

What a superb work it is, sounding quite magnificent on a modern piano.

- and, as illustrated on this morning's BaL, how even more so when played on the sort of instrument Mozart intended - how that composer knew and exploited the full range of colours of the instruments for which he wrote.

I'll contribute to the general applause for SP, too; all the time his focus was on the Music as something extraordinary, something to make the lives of its listeners just that little bit better - and his deep appreciation for so many different approaches to the work from Musicians who were equally committed to this Music. Such a difference from those reviewers who seem to believe that the composer wrote a work merely to allow that reviewer to demonstrate their own erudition.

Brautigam, Pires, Schnabel* and Goode sounded splendid to me!


(* = stirring my porridge this morning, I thought he was referring to a recording by "Arthur Scargill"! A miner, indeed!)

[Barbirollians]

What recording " won " ? I hope Lipatti topped the historical choices .

[Tony Halstead]

What recording " won " ? I hope Lipatti topped the historical choices .

Richard Goode, with Schnabel as the historical choice.
IMV he should have chosen a 'period winner' as well. Bart van Oort sounded wonderful.
Maybe he did choose a 'best HIPP' and I missed it...?

[Nick Armstrong]

What recording " won " ? I hope Lipatti topped the historical choices .

Goode for modern, Schanbel for historic (he loved the Lipatti but thought the lack of repeats, understandable given Lipatti's health, militated against it as a library choice)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Maybe he did choose a 'best HIPP' and I missed it...?

Of those available, he said that Brautigam was his favoured HIPP recording, but then said that another period pianist (whose name I missed!) might soon be recording the A minor and, judging by that performer's previous recordings, that would be worth waiting for.

[Nick Armstrong]

.... then said that another period pianist (whose name I missed!) might soon be recording the A minor and, judging by that performer's previous recordings, that would be worth waiting for.

http://kristianbezuidenhout.com/

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

http://kristianbezuidenhout.com/

[Bryn]

I will search out and spin my 'live' concert recording of John Tilbury playing the work. Unless I missed it, Lubimov did not get a mention. I hold Uchida's Mozart and Schubert recordings of fairly equal low regard. Just not my cup of tea.

[John Shelton]

Of those available, he said that Brautigam was his favoured HIPP recording, but then said that another period pianist (whose name I missed!) might soon be recording the A minor and, judging by that performer's previous recordings, that would be worth waiting for.

Kristian Bezuidenhout, I'd guess. It should be worth waiting for judging from earlier issues (he's putting recitals together, not a chronological survey). Brautigam's Beethoven and his Mozart concertos are fine but I found the Mozart sonatas dull when I heard them. He seems much more interesting now. The Lubimov box is exciting and Badura-Skoda (for me) is always engrossing.

It's probably only me, but I admire Sviatoslav Richter's Mozart. I like his resistance to so-called 'Mozartian' style. (Did he record K310?) Maria-João Pires is otherwise the best modern instrument recording I've heard (though so what if I think that I suppose).

I stopped listening to BAL because I realised I didn't care what the reviewers thought. Or said. Just like I gave up reading CD reviews. Not because I think I'm right and they're wrong or anything like that. Just lost interest in CD reviews completely. So what am I doing on this thread? What indeed?

[Bryn]

Unless I missed it, I don't think Lubimov even got a mention.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I will search out and spin my 'live' concert recording of John Tilbury playing the work.

- an astonishing Musician, much neglected by the record companies to the loss of the greater public; I'd no idea the work was in his repertoire!

[Alf-Prufrock]

John Tilbury and Mozart K310 -

: I'd no idea the work was in his repertoire!

Nobody would if they put his name into Youtube looking for examples!

[Bryn]

- an astonishing Musician, much neglected by the record companies to the loss of the greater public; I'd no idea the work was in his repertoire!

Oh dear. How embarrassing. I was relying on memory of a concert I recorded some 14 years ago at Conway Hall. I have found the CD-R later made from it and it turns out to have been K570 he played on that occasion, not K310.

Most of the concert consisted of works by Christan Wolff, but in the context of works by Mozart and Haydn (believe it or not, my introduction to Haydn's wonderful Variations in f minor Hob.XVII:6).

[Nick Armstrong]

I'm afraid I wasn't at all impressed with the Uchida. It sounded brash, as if she was trying to play in a Beethovenian rage.

I used this rainy day free of commitments to listen (among other things) to the Uchida complete. I think that judgment is a little harsh, but it's true that she plays the minor-key drama with some 'edge' - not the forced, ugly tone I found in the Cleveland concerto performance. I find it a compelling performance, well-recorded (how many piano recordings are spoiled by the acoustic or engineering side of things...). I don't feel any need to acquire another performance, I don't think. Mozart piano sonatas are not pieces I listen to regularly. The piano concertos: they're the things!