Mozart: Piano Sonatas

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Composer), Alicia de Larrocha (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Alicia de Larrocha
• Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Audio CD (June 26, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000003F00
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,408 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clean, classical interpretation, July 12, 2008

By 

Warren J. Dew (Somerville, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mozart: Piano Sonatas (Audio CD)

There are some differences of opinion about how to play Mozart. The traditional view is that he is a composer of the classical period; however, there have been artists who believe he is better grouped with the later, romantic composers, with more in common with Beethoven and Chopin than with Haydn. Thus it is that you can get Horowitz recordings of Mozart piano sonatas which unabashedly exploit the tremendous dynamic range of a modern concert grand piano, or Barenboim recordings that use rubato extending well beyond the classical definition of "borrowing" time from one part of the music to another.

De Larrocha's interpretations on this disk are clearly in the classical school, not the romantic. Her interpretations of these piano sonatas are light, clean, and beautiful; she uses her concert grand to elicit subtle dynamics, rather than broad ones. Her rubatos are gentle and largely limited to the melody and the right hand, as Mozart himself is said to have played; her focus is on playing these sonatas as Mozart wrote them, rather than on leaving her own imprint on the music.

For Mozart's solo piano pieces, such as these sonatas, I much prefer de Larrocha's classical approach. I'm happy to transform my ear phones into a concert hall with Beethoven or Brahms, but I like Mozart sonatas better as chamber music in the intimacy of my parlor.

If you, too, wish to hear a clear, classical set of Mozart sonatas as Mozart composed them, you won't go wrong with this disc.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb technique and wonderful sentiment, September 1, 2011

By 

Marco (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Mozart: Piano Sonatas (Audio CD)

One of the basics of Mozart's music is that it is difficult to play. In a specific sense, every note is out there alone, transparent. As such, mistakes are obvious and flaws in technique readily apparent. Whether is is simply a sustained note in an opera, a limpid passage in an adagio or the quickness demanded by a vivace, the waver of a diaphragm or clumsiness of a finger can ruin everything. Add to that the fact that Mozart demands both proper phrasing and a unity of overall phrasing so that and you have a large musical responsibility before you even get to matters of interpretation. In all of these aspects, Alicia de Larraccha succeeds and excels, with wonderful interpretations synthesizing superb technique, a deft and appropriate touch and decorous sentiment. If the exceptional Uchida can be faulted, it is that, at rare moments, some of her phrases are overwrought and, as a result, precious where Mozart never intended such. De Larroccha is always within the bounds of interpretive unity and as close to Mozart's intentions as we can be two centuries later.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Superb K. 333 and K. 283 from DeLarrocha, October 4, 2010

By 

A Passionate Music Lover (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mozart: Piano Sonatas (Audio CD)

When de Larrocha finally got around to recording the complete Mozart Sonatas and concertos for RCA, the cycle was uneven interpretively and even technically.

But this was the first volume issued and the performances of K. 333 and K. 283 are, by far, my favorite versions of these pieces. Her technical control are extraordinary, especially in the Alberti bass of the first movement of K.333, which is played with a controlled virtuosity that was a hallmark of her artistry; it never sounds mechanical.

Also, amazing is a feeling for rhythm which is a another De Larrocha trademark, which made her Mozart unique and different from just about any other pianist I can think of.

Unfortunately, K.331 and K. 332 while good, are less than inspired. Her earlier recordings on London/Decca of these pieces are far preferable. Some passages should have been re-done, b/c interpretively the playing is less than inspired and even sounds a bit sloppy.

One serious drawback, however, is the sound. It's thin and lacking in the wonderful acoustic "glow" that Uchida's versions have. Uchida is also good interpretively, but deLarrocha is inspired.

But I have no idea why RCA's recorded sound is so inferior to Phillips.