SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews
MOZART: Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 281; Piano Sonata in E-flat Major, K. 282; Piano Sonata in D Major, K. 576; Fantasia in C Minor, K. 396
- Alfred Brendel, piano - Philips
Brendel's Mozart is communicated with crystalline clarity, aided by the SACD sonics
Published on November 21, 2005
|
MOZART: Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 281; Piano Sonata in
E-flat Major, K. 282; Piano Sonata in D Major, K. 576; Fantasia in C
Minor, K. 396
- Alfred Brendel, piano - Philips Multichannel SACD 475 6199 55:13 (Distrib. Universal) ****:
Mozart’s early piano sonatas, composed 1774-1775, are likely touring pieces the composer used for concerts he gave in Munich, Augsburg, and Paris. The writing is a combination of brilliant, virtuoso runs and ornaments--in which the trill is already an organic element in the melodic contour--and arioso, florid writing which balances operatic figures with dance forms. The G Minor episode in the finale of the B-flat Sonata hints at the kinds of deep pathos the later Mozart would communicate in symphony and religious works. The E-flat Sonata utilizes a curious format of Adagio-Menuetto-Allegro that Mozart would again employ in the A Major Sonata, K. 331 with its Turkish Rondo. This piece has more empfindsamkeit debts than does the B-flat, and the rolling arpeggios of the first movement may well have influenced Beethoven’s Op. 27, No. 2. The D Major Sonata (1789) is Mozart’s last in the form - a combination of direct, lyrical outpouring and learned two-part counterpoint. The first movement bears the appellation “The Hunt” because of its horn-call effects. The second movement wanders into F# Minor/Major, the key of the second movement of the A Major Concerto, K. 488. The 1782 Fantasia is a piece whose genesis is a mystery, perhaps a truncated sketch for a passionate violin sonata. Maximilian Stadler claimed to have completed the piece from Mozart’s notes. Alfred Brendel has reinstated Mozart’s own text for the opening and the recapitulation, effectively adding symmetry and closure to this chromatic, deeply introspective piece.
Alfred Brendel renders these works with brittle, crystalline clarity, and the articulation of ornaments and grace notes is the soul of suave stateliness. The second subject in the E-flat Sonata Adagio elicits a musicbox sonority. Even given the relative brevity of the disc, the intensity of the playing and the wide-ranging emotional canvas of the pieces dictate savoring this disc in selective parts rather than taken in one gulp. Brendel plays Mozart as Schnabel played Beethoven, with the ethos that only more of the same composer’s works make fitting encores. After the pearly play of the opening three sonatas, the C Minor Fantasia plunges us in to the wine-dark seas of epic tragedy, touched by the procedures of Bach and Handel, heady going. The surround sound makes for a rich and full piano experience.
--Gary Lemco
- Alfred Brendel, piano - Philips Multichannel SACD 475 6199 55:13 (Distrib. Universal) ****:
Mozart’s early piano sonatas, composed 1774-1775, are likely touring pieces the composer used for concerts he gave in Munich, Augsburg, and Paris. The writing is a combination of brilliant, virtuoso runs and ornaments--in which the trill is already an organic element in the melodic contour--and arioso, florid writing which balances operatic figures with dance forms. The G Minor episode in the finale of the B-flat Sonata hints at the kinds of deep pathos the later Mozart would communicate in symphony and religious works. The E-flat Sonata utilizes a curious format of Adagio-Menuetto-Allegro that Mozart would again employ in the A Major Sonata, K. 331 with its Turkish Rondo. This piece has more empfindsamkeit debts than does the B-flat, and the rolling arpeggios of the first movement may well have influenced Beethoven’s Op. 27, No. 2. The D Major Sonata (1789) is Mozart’s last in the form - a combination of direct, lyrical outpouring and learned two-part counterpoint. The first movement bears the appellation “The Hunt” because of its horn-call effects. The second movement wanders into F# Minor/Major, the key of the second movement of the A Major Concerto, K. 488. The 1782 Fantasia is a piece whose genesis is a mystery, perhaps a truncated sketch for a passionate violin sonata. Maximilian Stadler claimed to have completed the piece from Mozart’s notes. Alfred Brendel has reinstated Mozart’s own text for the opening and the recapitulation, effectively adding symmetry and closure to this chromatic, deeply introspective piece.
Alfred Brendel renders these works with brittle, crystalline clarity, and the articulation of ornaments and grace notes is the soul of suave stateliness. The second subject in the E-flat Sonata Adagio elicits a musicbox sonority. Even given the relative brevity of the disc, the intensity of the playing and the wide-ranging emotional canvas of the pieces dictate savoring this disc in selective parts rather than taken in one gulp. Brendel plays Mozart as Schnabel played Beethoven, with the ethos that only more of the same composer’s works make fitting encores. After the pearly play of the opening three sonatas, the C Minor Fantasia plunges us in to the wine-dark seas of epic tragedy, touched by the procedures of Bach and Handel, heady going. The surround sound makes for a rich and full piano experience.
--Gary Lemco
on this article to AUDIOPHILE AUDITION!
Email this page to a friend.
View a printer-friendly version.
