Who's for Mozart?

[kea]

I've never paid much attention to Mozart's piano sonatas, in distinction to Haydn's which I've spent much time with. So, after reading Bryn's post, I listened to Lubimov, Badura-Skoda and Schoonderwoerd playing K576. Annoyingly, Qobuz doesn't include the liner notes for either set. As I imagined would be the case, Lubimov is very smooth and assured, maybe too much so, Badura-Skoda somewhat too far in the other direction. Schoonderwoerd would be my choice from these three as far as the playing is concerned, but his recording sounds a bit as if the microphones and the piano aren't in the same room.

For 576 in particular (which, ok, there aren't a lot of other Mozart sonatas I care about) I would look for Jos van Immerseel on Vivarte. It's a difficult sonata to get right and very few performances are entirely convincing.

(For complete cycles, I'm happy with PBS and Kristian Bezuidenhout. I want to hear Bilson as well, at some point.)

[Mandryka]

Samuel Feinberg in 576 for me! Followed by Giovanni de Cecco.

[RichardB]

For 576 in particular (which, ok, there aren't a lot of other Mozart sonatas I care about) I would look for Jos van Immerseel on Vivarte. It's a difficult sonata to get right and very few performances are entirely convincing.

(For complete cycles, I'm happy with PBS and Kristian Bezuidenhout. I want to hear Bilson as well, at some point.)

Thanks, I will bear those in mind. Don't you think PBS is a bit unrhythmical, in this sonata at least?

[MickyD]

This one by any chance!

https://www.discogs.com/release/1093...rts-Fortepiano

There was also a L'Oiseau Lyre disc with Schiff playing on Mozart's fortepiano...I have it somewhere on my shelves.

[cloughie]

There was also a L'Oiseau Lyre disc with Schiff playing on Mozart's fortepiano...I have it somewhere on my shelves.

It is in fact the one, Micky - mentions L’oiseau lyre in footnotes!

[RichardB]

Further to my earlier somewhat dismissive comment about Schoonderwoerd's recording - after a couple of sonatas I got used to it. The advantages of his recording is an instrument with more character than Lubimov's and less aggressive than PBS's very closely recorded sound (although for me PBS is ruled out by his playing). Schoonderwoerd is also fairly generous (but tasteful) with ornamentation, which some might not like but I can't believe that Mozart would have sat there and only played the notes on the page, especially when there are repeats.

[Bryn]

There was also a L'Oiseau Lyre disc with Schiff playing on Mozart's fortepiano...I have it somewhere on my shelves.

It's in here.too:

[gurnemanz]

Haebler is up there with the best when it comes to Mozart. Her complete set of the Mozart Piano Concertos was available on CD for a while, but I didn't buy them, though I'd had them on LP. Then they appeared again, but this time bundled with her Schubert recordings. By the time I'd decided to buy that set with the extras I didn't really want that the time, the set had been sold out.

Still, I live in hope.

I was reminded that I had a Philips Duo twofer of piano duets with Haebler and Ludwig Hoffmann, which I hadn't heard for while. I listened again to several with great pleasure.

The only other recordings I have are a fine set of the complete Mozart Violin Sonatas with Henryk Szeryng on 4 CDs and an old Vox recording of Piano Concerto 13 K 415, Vienna 1956

[french frank]

This one by any chance!

https://www.discogs.com/release/1093...rts-Fortepiano

Yes, a 'tourist' souvenir bought in the Tanzmeisterhaus! (I also have Andreas Haefliger playing the C minor K457, together with the Fantasia K475 (another of my favourites). I see these are the Oiseau-Lyre recordings.

Many thanks to everyone who's suggested period instrument versions. Comments noted.

[Barbirollians]

I had a tape of hers once playing some J C Bach piano concertos. I recall it was very good.

[MickyD]

It is in fact the one, Micky - mentions L’oiseau lyre in footnotes!

Oops, sorry, I didn't get that far! The cover picture confused me, as my original one is like this:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81rmhpRmg2L._AC_SL1415_.jpg

It's now going for just over a pound on Amazon UK!

[MickyD]

I had a tape of hers once playing some J C Bach piano concertos. I recall it was very good.

If I remember correctly, she recorded them all in a Philips set on LP, using a Neupert fortepiano.

[Edgy 2]

I was reminded that I had a Philips Duo twofer of piano duets with Haebler and Ludwig Hoffmann, which I hadn't heard for while. I listened again to several with great pleasure.

The only other recordings I have are a fine set of the complete Mozart Violin Sonatas with Henryk Szeryng on 4 CDs and an old Vox recording of Piano Concerto 13 K 415, Vienna 1956

I'd forgotten that I have those as part of the big Szeryng box.

[Bryn]

I'd forgotten that I have those as part of the big Szeryng box.

Easily done when one has quite a few multi-disc boxes. I knew I had the Schiff recordings one Mozart's instrument but it was only when l'oiseau-lyre was mentioned that I thought to look in the Classical and Early Romantic box.

[jayne lee wilson]

Mozart Violin Sonatas? Here's my go-to, lived with it since 2020....lovely box.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B076FNKK3R/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Faust/Melnikov have been working through them recently, just as distinctively fine as you'd expect...perhaps a little more flair and individuality & overt musical expression than the Kuijken...but that "objectivity" is Kuikjen's way of course.