Vlado Perlemuter Mozart Piano Sonatas (2007)

Behind every Mozart solo piano composition is the human voice, and many interpreters understandably build their interpretations from the melody line down. By contrast, fortepianist Andreas Staier generates rhythmic and dramatic momentum by letting his left hand lead, so to speak. His firm, sharply delineated bass lines in the C minor sonata's outer movements and the E-flat sonata's Allegro finale evoke a symphonic rather than operatic aura that proves far more stimulating than Paul Badura-Skoda's equally rigorous yet less vibrant fortepiano traversals.

Mozart's early piano sonatas have a disproportionate number of recordings given their relative importance in the composer's output. This might be so because they are relatively straightforward pieces that can be interpreted in any number of ways: they let pianists make their marks on the music. They can be made to look back to the harpsichord sonata era, be made proto-Beethovenian, or be played as pure Mozart in the classic delicate style. Pianist Lars Vogt's readings are distinctive and certainly justify his decision to present his own take. He balances detail and virtuosity, with zippy but graceful outer movements in the Piano Sonata in F major, K. 280, and Piano Sonata in B flat major, K. 281, that take just a bit of time when Vogt wants to bring out a specific point.

"The sonatas of Mozart are unique," said Artur Schnabel. "They are too easy for children, and too difficult for artists." It was performances like Mikhail Pletnev's that inspired Schabel's maxim. Pletnev's technique is awe-inspiring, and the smooth, room-sized sound he gets out of a grand piano promise wonderful things as one begins listening to the disc. But there's a certain refusal to fool with the music, a Zen detachment perhaps, that's necessary for a really good Mozart performance, and Pletnev does too much tinkering.

Even though Marc-André Hamelin is world-renowned for his astonishing virtuosity and a massive repertoire of the most demanding piano works, including those of Scriabin, Godowsky, and Sorabji, he has startled many with his sudden turn toward the placid domain of Classical music. First came his critically acclaimed recordings of Franz Joseph Haydn's keyboard sonatas, which were surprise best-sellers for Hyperion, and here he offers a double-CD of the piano sonatas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with a handful of short pieces to round out the discs. Since Hamelin's fine reputation precedes him, suffice it to say that these are among the most meticulously played and wittily interpreted renditions of these pieces ever recorded.

While its unpretentious cover photo and small text don't proclaim it as an important recording, Noriko Ogawa's 2012 SACD of Mozart piano sonatas is the kind of sleeper album that quietly asserts its value and convinces purely through the beauty of the music. The three piano sonatas presented here also have that kind of unassuming quality. Mozart composed them as teaching pieces, suitable for players of modest skills, yet they have become extremely popular and rank among his best loved works. Ogawa plays them with a light touch that suits their simplicity, and her interpretations of K. 330, K. 331 (famous for its Rondo alla Turca), and K. 332 are transparent and almost naïve, but for the subtlety of attack, balanced phrasing, and shaded dynamics that reveal her artistry. BIS provides nearly ideal sound quality for Ogawa, offering clean reproduction and reasonably close microphone placement that make listening effortless.

These bracing, unorthodox fortepiano readings of Mozart's first three keyboard sonatas are the first in a series by Robert Levin, a professor at Harvard University. Levin is among the first players to use the fortepiano's agility in the service of speed and flash. His Mozart is quick, jumpy, technically impressive, and distinctly unlyrical – "un-Mozartian" will be the first reaction for many listeners. Sample the Presto finale of the Piano Sonata in F major, K. 280, for an example of what you're getting into here.

To describe this as beautiful Mozart playing would be true, but not the whole truth. For what impressed me most was its very positive character. Everything is of crystalline clarity, everything is what can be conveniently summarized as stylish. Yet never is there a single bar's suggestion of note-weaving for its own sake. Ashkenazy always uncovers strong motives for the notes being there. For this reason he is more likely to convert disbelievers (and there are some, in the context of Mozart and the solo keyboard) than Haebler in her recent boxed set.

The Grammy award-winning pianist Daniel Barenboim, long known for his Mozart interpretations, turns his attention to Mozart’s piano sonatas, a body of work that, while forming the core of the pianist’s repertory, is not often heard in the concert hall. These sonatas showcase Mozart’s genius for the small-scale, and truly shine in Barenboim’s masterful rendering.

The Grammy award-winning pianist Daniel Barenboim, long known for his Mozart interpretations, turns his attention to Mozart’s piano sonatas, a body of work that, while forming the core of the pianist’s repertory, is not often heard in the concert hall. These sonatas showcase Mozart’s genius for the small-scale, and truly shine in Barenboim’s masterful rendering.

The Grammy award-winning pianist Daniel Barenboim, long known for his Mozart interpretations, turns his attention to Mozart’s piano sonatas, a body of work that, while forming the core of the pianist’s repertory, is not often heard in the concert hall. These sonatas showcase Mozart’s genius for the small-scale, and truly shine in Barenboim’s masterful rendering.