Customer Reviews

Mozart: Sonates pour le pianoforte [Box Set]

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These six CDs have previously been issued separately, at full price, on the Astrée label. Now they are available from Naïve in a box set at budget price. But they will not be for everyone. For much of his career, ever since he first played a piano from the 18th century in 1948, Badura-Skoda (born 1924; but all the pictures in the booklets are from when he was in his 20s) has been fascinated by historic instruments, and indeed owns several. These performances were recorded on one that he owns, a 1790 piano built in Vienna by Johann Schantz, which was just one year before Mozart's death. So there is every reason to believe that Mozart himself played on similar pianos.

Be that as it may, one must be prepared - and nowhere does the information at Amazon tell you this - for the sound of an early piano. Although it is in tiptop condition, it still sounds a bit tinkly compared to a modern grand piano. Further, as these recordings were made over a period from 1978 and 1990, the sound varies considerably. The earlier recordings are 1978: K394, K453, K540, K355(576b), K574, K 397(385g), K511, and K265(300e); and 1985 (K. 533/494, K545, K570, K576). The rest are from 1989 and 1990. Even though all the works are played on the same piano, the sound on the earlier recordings is rather tinkly; those from 1989 and 1990 are much richer.

That said, the interpretations are themselves, for the most part, very effective. Badura-Skoda was one of my pianistic heroes when I was a youngster and studying the Austro-German literature. He recorded a great deal and often the recordings were affordable for me. Still, even back then I recognized he was probably not one of the nonpareil giants of pianism; he was, rather, a scholar-pianist. One could be sure one was getting accurate interpretations with a minimum of Romantic schmaltz thrown in. In the present recordings, though, one notices some unstable tempi and even some sticky fingerwork in what should be pearlescent runs and arpeggios. This is not consistent, but occurs often enough to make one sit up and take notice. I find Badura-Skoda more effective in the more dramatic works, like the D minor Fantasia, or some of the minor key sonatas, like K457 in C Minor or K310 in A minor.

Still, for someone interested in a) a piano contemporaneous with Mozart himself, and b) a complete collection of the Mozart sonatas (plus some of the miscellaneous pieces like the C minor and D minor Fantasias) this budget set would be a good buy.

Scott Morrison

Along with Badura-Skoda's Schubert cycle, this set represents some of the finest fortepiano playing on records. To a newcomer, a 1790 instrument takes some ajustment. The instrument isn't as loud, and homogenious throughout its registers as a modern concert grand. What one gainshowever, is an almost infinite range of nuance of tone and touch unavailable to the modern instrument. One soon becomes drawn into Mozart's actual sound world without missing the gloss of later pianos. The many great sonatas recieve penetrating interpretations which easily match the best that has been done on the modern grand. Badura-Skoda's varied touch and understanding of Mozart's inner world makes for treasurable, satisfying, and unique renderings of a large body of the core Austrio-Germanic repetoire. The additional disc of variations and short pieces are particularly beguiling.

Sorry to offend Mozart devotees, but I found most of the sonati (with which I was not very familiar prior to buying this album) pretty boring. As a Bach and Beethoven devotee, there is a great deal of Mozart that I really love (the Masonic funeral Music is sublime), but also a goodly amount that I find rather ho-hum. Unfortunately, most of the piano sonati fall in that class for me. They are extremely well-played by Badura-Skoda, and I like the sound of the forte-piano, but I cannot get terribly excited about the musical content. This may sound rather Philistine of me, but I find (with the exception of the "Turkish March Sonata," that there is more exciting music in Bach's English Suites than in all of the Mozart sonati as a whole. I am a fan of many of his piano concerti, symphonies and operas, but did not really get much out of this album.

I give it four stars for Badura-Skoda's technique and virtuosity, but will listen to Ashkenazi's 32 sonati by Beethoven when I want to hear what a piano sonata should sound like.