Old Mozart Piano Sonata Recordings.

[Mandryka]

I wanted to get the Christian Blackshaw discs but they went out of print very quickly.

They’re all on Spotify and Qobuz, what he does is really very sweet. (Search “Mozart Wigmore” on Qobuz - their search tool is very quirky,)

[rauschwerk]

Iturbi's K331 is not as good as his K332. The rough 1932 sound proved to be a challenge even for Mark Obert-Thorn, and there are idiosyncrasies in the first movement that I'm not really comfortable with. No repeats in the first movement (though plenty in the second), clearly with a view to filling no more than four sides.

Solomon (1952, all repeats) is much better, though the sound is quite harsh in loud passages. I like this version a lot, though he takes the Finale at a helluva lick considering the Allegretto marking.

[Mandryka]

I can’t find the Solomon K332 - can you let me have a link to it?

Re Iturbi, the sound on the Bibliothèque Natonale de France transfer is very acceptable to me, making allowances for age of the recording. One thing I think is interesting, is that Iturbi seems to come from an era which is before the romanticisation of Mozart, at least judging by his 332. It feels much more incisive and exciting to me than pianists like Walter Klien and Horszowski and Backhaus. This could be just an effect of the speed - as you say, the desire to make it fit on the sides of the record. There’s a recording of Brahms intermezzi by Backhaus from the 1930s which is taken at such a pace, and seems so objective - and a similar very early recording from Rudolph Serkin of a Schubert sonata.

[rauschwerk]

Sorry - my poor wording suggested I was referring to K332 (Solomon) but I meant K331!

[Joseph K]

Seem to recall liking a first encounter with some Gilels I believe years ago. Will check next time I'm at my grandmother's.

I came back from my grandmother's yesterday. While there I discovered the disk I refer to above and took pictures of it:

[Bryn]

They’re all on Spotify and Qobuz, what he does is really very sweet. (Search “Mozart Wigmore” on Qobuz - their search tool is very quirky,)

Thanks. Yes, "quirky" is the right word. On a par with that on offer on the BBC's site.

[smittims]

One pianist not mentioned so far is Artur Schnabel, who recorded about five of the sonatas, for me the finest-ever interpretations of these works. It as Schnabel who said they were 'too easy for children but too difficult for adults'.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

One pianist not mentioned so far is Artur Schnabel, who recorded about five of the sonatas, for me the finest-ever interpretations of these works. It as Schnabel who said they were 'too easy for children but too difficult for adults'.

His interpretations were exceptional, and he defended his occasion fluffs, by saying he could have played it more accurately, but wouldn’t have been as good.

Welcome to the forum, smittims. It’s great to have you here.

[Bryn]

. . . Welcome to the forum, smittims. It’s great to have you here.

As in "great to have you back"?

[french frank]

As in "great to have you back"?

Aye, aye!

[By the way, I keep reading the thread title as "Old Mozart &c"].

[Mandryka]

One pianist not mentioned so far is Artur Schnabel, who recorded about five of the sonatas, for me the finest-ever interpretations of these works. It as Schnabel who said they were 'too easy for children but too difficult for adults'.

The thing I like most from him is not a sonata, but the A minor rondo K 511.

[smittims]

Yes, that was one of his last Mozart recordings. He also recorded several of the concertos, sometimes with his own outlandish cadenze, and the G minor quartet with members of the Pro-Arte quartet.

[Padraig]

As in "great to have you back"?

Welcome back

[Mandryka]

Yes, that was one of his last Mozart recordings. He also recorded several of the concertos, sometimes with his own outlandish cadenze, and the G minor quartet with members of the Pro-Arte quartet.

I quite like the idea of the pianist writing his own music for the cadenza, and I don't think it should be in the same style as the concerto necessarily. But I just myself don't much like Schnabel's music.

One cadenza worth hearing is Lang Lang's for 491. Romantic cadenza in a classical concerto. Avoid the Harnoncourt recording, there used to be better live ones on youtube.

[smittims]

Edwin Fischer played his own cadenzas in the Mozart concertos , but they were closer to 18th cent. style. I wonder what Busoni played when he revived about eleven of the concertos in Berlin in the early 20th century, the first person since Mozart to play more than one or two.