Customer Reviews

Complete Piano Sonatas

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Recording quality aside (which while it could be better, is no where near as bad as some will have you believe), her playing is tight, passionate and excellent... and far more effective than the Barenboim recordings, which are too eccentric-sounding (not to mention self-indulgent; less Barenboim, more Mozart, please) for my tastes. Regarding the matter of Mozart and "lightness", that, too, is a stylistic choice, and, ultimately, matter of preference... even if it is a widely-accepted one. Unless someone uncovers some original Mozart recordings (good luck!), we never will know how the great man intended his music to be played, will we?

I really can't comment on the performances in this box set because I couldn't get past the sub-par recording quality. Stick with Barenboim's fine set on EMI, a nicely recorded and outstanding performance at a bargain price.

This recording exemplifies a certain pedal-heavy, bass-heavy approach to Mozart that I'm told exemplifies a certain school of performance prominent in central Europe. It is technically proficient but the exact opposite of what most of us hear in Mozart -- the quality that Italo Calvino called lightness. This is one of the things that makes pianists say that Mozart is the hardest composer to play well. The muffled, unfocused sound quality is also quite off-putting, making the set sound as though it had been recorded from the back row of a concert hall with the acoustics of a public lavatory. I would like to hear Ms. Deyanova perform different repertoire under different recording conditions. I suspect that this set (and this composer) don't present her at her best.

Very heavy-handed playing. I was very discouraged that I spent money on this set and am unable to use it.