Customer Reviews

Mozart: Four Piano Sonatas

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Mitsuko Uchida's direct approach to Mozart perfectly serves the nature of the music. She walks the tightrope admirably: Uchida is not swallowed by overly-dramatizing Mozart, while she remains attentive to the natural beauties in the score. This Mozart is warm, unsentimental and is backed up by a sensitive musical mind. Bravo, Ms. Uchida!

Driving on the busy freeway, on the edge of frustration, out comes a radio moment of Mozart Sonata No. 4 as caressed by Mitsuko Uchida, and all else is tamed. So arriving home, a visit to the CD library to hear the entire recording completely satisfied. Though this recording is now fifteen years old it remains one of the more eloquent, sensitively played, humanistic surveys of Mozart Sonatas 2, 3, 4 and 5 available.

Mitsuko Uchida is a poet, one to whom the fire of the big concerti is undaunting, while remaining one of our most understated artists of the delicate works such as these four Mozart sonatas. Her approach is gentle, straightforward, and clear in definition: her result is Mozart that appeals as much to the heart as to the mind. These are beautifully shaped and immaculate performances, ones that draw you back time and time again. This is one of Mitsuko Uchida's finest CDs. Music for the beleaguered soul. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, December 05

Uchida's performances of the Mozart piano sonatas are all excellent, and she plays them in a warm, soft way that I find very pleasing.
The K281 is one of my favourite Mozart sonatas, and Uchida's performance is very good with a soft and thoughtful touch. For this particular sonata I can also recommend Vladimir Horowitz's truly excellent recording on DG.

While not as warm as Uchida, Horowitz was one of the most brilliant pianists of the 20th century, and his playing of the Mozart sonatas is crystal clear. I absolutely need both versions, but I find myself listening to Uchida's version most of the time.

Mitsuko Uchida is one of the best Mozart interpreters IMO (For another good interpretation try Gieseking's recordings
of the sonatas and concertos). This is an incredible CD. Some purists might be of the opinion that these sonatas should be played on a pianoforte, and Mozart probably used one when he composed them, but IMHO they sound much better on a modern piano.