Klavierwerke I

Richard Fuller (Performer, Composer), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Richard Fuller, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Composer: Richard Fuller
• Audio CD (March 15, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Palatine Recordings
• ASIN: B00005NZ4T
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #727,562 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mozart Sonatas on Fortepiano, August 13, 2006

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Klavierwerke I (Audio CD)

I was not particularly prepared to like this release, largely because I seem to have a blind (deaf?) spot regarding the sound of the instrument involved, the fortepiano. Too often, for me, the sound of the fortepiano sounds perilously close to that of a toy piano tinkling away when what I'd prefer is the strong sound of the modern pianoforte. Still, listening to this CD I was charmed by the sound which is actually quite appealing without being quaint. That is to say, there is strength to the tone even though one would never mistake it for that of a modern Steinway.

But more important is the playing of Richard Fuller. Fuller is an American fortepianist and clavichordist who specializes in the music of the Viennese Classical and early Romantic periods. He ably demonstrates the wide range of expression and dynamic of the fortepiano, adding discreet ornaments and lightly elaborated cadences as presumably Mozart himself or other late 18th-century instrumentalists would have done. The result of both his approach and the sound of the instrument is that these sonatas which, in the words of Anthony Newman, are 'miniaturized' when played on a modern grand piano, emerge as subtle but strong works. Even the first sonata -- the ever-familiar Sonata in C, K.545 -- is heard as the potent work it truly is, not the miniature as performed by beginning piano students. The performances of the four sonatas, plus the fine Fantasy in D Minor -- one of Mozart's towering keyboard works -- are both light and intense. Don't ask me how Fuller manages that seeming contradiction.

This recording was originally made in 1988 and released on an obscure German label. It and two subsequent Fuller Mozart Klavierwerk CDs were remastered and re-released by Palatine Records in 2001. It's worth hearing.

Scott Morrison