Complete Mozart Piano Sonatas

Thanks Masolino, I know the excellent van Oort from his Haydn and Beethoven sonata recordings, and the Mozart sounds like a must have.

 

I have this box but since I bought it with the rest of Mozart's works (over a year ago) it is still sealed.
At the moment I'm buzy with the Haydn Piano works played by Buchbinder..
Back to the box you mentioned: the box I have has 10 CDs and not all the works are played by Bart von Oort.
The CD Variations Vol. III is played by Pieter-Jan Belder,
the Klavierstücke Vol. 1 is played by Bernard Foccroulle (organ) Guy Penson (clavichord),
The Klavierstücke Vol II and III are played by Luc Devos,
the organ works by Haselböck.

PS: just listened to a few tracks of the first CD. The recording quality is not among the better ones I heard...

but we are maybe not talking about the same thing.

 

It must be this:

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/hnum/4897583/rk/classic/rsk/hitlist

As far as I can see, the two-hand Piano Sonatas are not included, and this makes the set a little less attractive for me, than I first thought it was. Not that I don't like the Sonatas for four hands and the Variations, once I played some of them myself, but to day my preferences are elsewhere.

 

YES, YES it's that one!
At my place it is bigger than that but the colours and pictures are the same.

 

I also already own the older Brilliant box of assorted keyboard music, and it isn't exactly the same as the van Oort box I wrote about above - the duplications between the two boxes being the variations and 4-hand pieces where van Oort is joined by Ursula Duetschler. The new 14-cd box contains the solo sonatas, fantasias etc., which were recorded between 2001 and 2005 (one disc recorded in 1997). It also has Mr. van Oort's picture on the cover, slim cardboard inner sleeves instead of bulky plastic jewel boxes and thus isn't part of the Brilliant Classics complete Mozart series.

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/hnum/7768653/rk/classic/rsk/hitlist

 

Good news, Masolino, but where did you get it from? I understand, that it must have been released recently, but I can´t find it listed anywhere.

 

Re: Pires.

As I said I liked her D minor Fantasia. However I listened to the K331 A Major (Alla Turca) today, and it was bland beyond belief. (This is the DG recording.) I guess this is one of the reasons why I didn't pursue her Mozart any further.

 

Hi pe-zulu,

I got mine here in Taiwan about a month ago. As you see, jpc has listed the van Oort Mozart as released on this past Feburary, and it would be very odd if Brilliant Classics decides to delay its availability in Europe now that we are almost half through the Mozart-Jahr. BTW, I found a link to mdt.co.uk and crotchet.co.uk also, if their price seems quite a bit high compared to what I paid (around USD $55):

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//93025.htm

http://makeashorterlink.com/?S3771592D

 

Dear Masolino

Thanks for the links. I didn't know the two English sites, but at last I found it even at Jpc, the site I commonly use. Strange that it does pop up there, when I search on van Oort, but not when I search on Mozart klavierwerke or sonaten.

Regards,

 

Hi pe-zulu,

You are welcome re: the links. You mentioned earlier how van Oort impressed you with his contribution in the Haydn sonata box (even though there is only 2(?) discs worth of it?). I wonder whether you also have the complete Haydn sonatas recorded by Christine Schornsheim (often partnered with Andreas Staier in duos or 4-hands), available very cheaply on the Capriccio label. Quite a bargain since her performances are excellent.

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/hnum/2850719/rk/classic/rsk/hitlist

 

Yes, I own the Schornsheim cycle. Haven't managed to listen to more than three of the CDs yet, but finding her appealing and spirited.

As to van Oort, do you know the period Beethoven Sonata cycle on Claves by Malcom Bilson and friends, van Oort playing no. 5, 9, 21 and 26 (Ursula Dütschler playing no. 6, 10, 13, 16 and the Kurfürsten Sonate in D-major)?
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/tg.../samples/ref=ed_sa_dp_1_1/028-4260428-5106120

The credited Jan van Oort is Bart van Oort!

 

No.. I didn't buy it when it was still widely available
partly because it was panned by some people whose
opinions I respect. Here as in the Haydn set, though,
van Oort was never the one called bland for his playing;
the blame lies elsewhere. Anyway the Claves set is
kind of difficult to find now and expensive. So I am now
counting on Brautigam's ongoing and critically acclaimed
series on BIS to get my complete Beethoven sonatas
on the fortepiano. (Paul Komen would be another
good musician to do a Beethoven fortepiano cycle if
he had done more.)

 

Masolino, unfortunately I discovered Komen too late to get more than his no, 8,9,10 & 11, and in these days I am waiting for his no.30,31 & 32 to arrive. He is difficult to compare with Brautigam, who he has recorded only a few sonatas until now. Among these two I tend to prefer Komen, often finding him poetic, as opposed to the more aggressive and efficient Brautigam. My preferred period Beethoven interpreter though is Paul Badura-Skoda, who is much more varied and expressive than the two others. A fourth possibility is the sober and very unidiosyncratic Melvin Tan, who manages to "step back" and let Beethovens music talk for itself to great effect. But surely Beethoven played his own Sonatas more like Brautigam than like Tan, I think.

Regards,

 

Strange how perceptions (or rather aesthetic priorities) differ.
I had heard Beethoven by Tan and Badura-Skoda before and
found them rather ungainly for opposite reasons - Tan too
flat and Badura-Skoda too uneven, both in their interpretation
styles and the sound produced by their instruments. (And
EMI's remote recorded sound doesn't help in the former
case, either. ) Speaking of "letting music speaking for itself,"
I have a Hungraton recording of Andras Schiff playing
the Bagatelles on the Broadwood pianoforte in the Budapest
National Museum. I have no idea whether that
instrument was over-restored or not, but it never
sounds as rickety-rackety as Badura-Skoda's Schantz
or Broadwood. Perhaps it's not too much to expect
van Oort to record his own Beethoven cycle
eventually.

 

Yes, how we describe the same things from different angles. Tan appeals to me just because of his restraint, Badura-Skoda because he selects different sub-period instruments, and tries to adapt his playing style to the possibilities of these instruments. He doesn't pretend to be perfect, but he is always very human and expressive like his teacher Edwin Fischer. Badura-Skoda recorded the cycle in the 1970es on a Bösendorfer piano, and the result is as expected more even from a technical point of view, but the interpretation is essentially similar. Of course some of the attraction lies in the possibility to study these very different approaches to the Sonatas including the approaches of Brautigam, Komen and van Oort. And the more I listen, the more I prefer period instruments to Steinway.

 

Fools rush in where angesls fear to tread and those who have posted in this thread before me have much more knowledge, but could I register a recommendation for Lily Kraus. Her performances are fluid and unforced and always fun. I believe she has recorded two complete sets one of which is still available.

 

Lily Kraus is indeed one of the artists I have considered seriously in Mozart. The Sony set is available for 250 Euros or so, and I don't think I can resist this in the long run. I am more in doubt whether the Music and Arts set is available or not.

 

Pires

This weekend I heard two concerts with Pires and the Philarmonia Orchestra.
They played a part from Schostakowich the Mozart's piano concerts No. 20 and 23.
Well I can tell you that in the last 10-15 years I never was so strucked from an interpretation of Mozart's piano concerts like these ones. I not only liked the great fluidity but the ability of changing the sensitivity of the touch, the very subtile crescendos and changes of dynamic for example.
Of course we can argue if the interpretation should go in a romantic style or be stricted classical (maybe with a fortepiano).

I bought at the concert the complete piano sonatas box and I am now listening to it. The recordings were done about fifteen years ago and I supose she has further developed her feelings in Mozart's music.
I heard the sonata KV331 and 332.
The first impression is very good. There is very much sensitivity in her playing and for some it could result as bland or boaring. I supose a system which can reproduce really well details and micro dynamics would be of great help.

The recording quality of the CD I heard is far better than any CD of Brillant classics for example.

 

Even better than recent, brand new ones from Brilliant Classics? I think you were generalizing a lot here. FYI, Pires has done another Mozart sonata cycle for DG since her Denon and Erato days, but I really have no use of either since I don't care for Mozart on modern pianos anymore.

 

I don't have any recordings of Brilliant Classics done this year but any other CD which I have, and I have hundreds of them, are lacking of really excellent quality. The problem I believe is not from the recording itself. They all have a little bit of echoes and are not clear enough.
You can notice this especially when you compare the original with the Brilliant Classic reiessue. Some "new" ones like the Mozart's Masses are simply horrible. But for the money who cares...