South African-born, London resident Daniel-Ben Pienaar is a completest. Recent surveys, both on the concert platform and in the recording studio, include Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Chopin's Complete Waltzes, Schubert's Complete Sonatas, and the complete keyboard works by Orlando Gibbons. He arrives on the Avie label with another major project in tow: the complete Piano Sonatas by Mozart.

An active recitalist, chamber musician and professor at the Royal Academy of Music, Pienaar has a number of critically acclaimed independent releases under his belt, but this recording represents and uncommon synergy between artist, repertoire and production values. In Gramophone Award-winning producer Jonathan Freeman-Atwood, Pienaar found a special simpatico which he found "profoundly enabling", resulting in a creative recording process specific in relation to the music in hand. Pienaar presents the works chronologically over five CDs, illustrating Mozart's compositional trajectory which represents all of the major stylistic and emotional shifts in his mature career, with the earliest dating from his twentieth year, through his Viennese period, and the final works which were written towards the end of his all too brief life.

Critical acclaim:
"... no doubt that this South African-born pianist is a thinking virtuoso ... In the company of such contrasting practitioners as Edwin Fischer, Samuel Feinberg, Sviatoslav Richter and Glenn Gould, he seems determined to leave his own mark" - BBC Music Magazine

"Daniel-Ben Pienaar's performances are quite simply stunning. The instrument he plays matters much less than his musicianship, which is evident at every turn." - Gramophone

"A kaleidoscope of colours and textures in performances that combined the dramatic with the ethereal, the monumental with the intimate" - International Piano summary South African-born, London resident Daniel-Ben Pienaar makes his Avie debut with this beautifully recorded and ambitious project: the complete Piano Sonatas of Mozart.

Mozart: Piano Sonatas Nos. 11 and 14 / Fantasia in C Minor

MOZART Piano Sonatas: No. 10 in C, K 330; No. 11 in A, K 331; No. 12 in F, K 332 • Noriko Ogawa (pn) • BIS 1985 (SACD: 76: 00)


Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa has appeared in these pages several times in repertoire ranging from Beethoven to Takemitsu. This, however, is her first foray on disc into Mozart. I suppose there’s a degree of pertinence to Ogawa’s selection of these three sonatas for her Mozart debut, since it’s now believed that they were the first piano sonatas Mozart composed after his permanent move to Vienna in 1781. Some older sources, however, still suggest the late 1770s and Salzburg or even Paris as the time and place of their composition. The middle sonata of the set, No. 11, popularly known as “Alla Turca” for its last movement’s “Turkish”-themed Rondo, is the most unusual of the three works, not because of the Rondo but because the sonata is homotonal—i.e., all three movements are in either A Major or A Minor, thus having the same tonic. If you prefer hearing these pieces on a modern Steinway grand—and I do—it’s hard to imagine them being played any more sensitively, charmingly, expressively, and stylishly than they are here by Noriko Ogawa. The combination of BIS’s crystalline recording and Ogawa’s exceptionally limpid touch and pellucid tone makes this a winning entry in the Mozart piano sonata catalog. Recommended to all Mozart lovers, except those who are unalterably opposed to hearing this music played on anything other than a period fortepiano.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Pianists Julian Perkins and Emma Abbate have come together to record the first of two volumes of the complete piano duets of Mozart on original fortepianos. Some of Mozart’s lesser-known works, his piano duets span most of his active life, with the earliest written at the age of nine. Often delightful and lyrical as well as humorous and exciting, these works are given an authentic air on period instruments. Included on this first volume are duets in D major K381, C major K521 and B-flat major, K358. Also included is a duet by Johann Christian Bach, with whom the infant Mozart is alleged to have played keyboard duets whilst sitting on the older composer's lap. The two original fortepianos used in this recording form part of the Richard Burnett Collection of early keyboard instruments: a grand fortepiano by Johann Fritz (Vienna, c. 1815) and a travelling piano by Anton Walter (Vienna, c. 1805). This album represents the final recording made at Finchcocks Musical Museum.

MOZART Piano Concertos: No. 12 in A , K 414 ; No. 26 in D, K 537 • Christian Zacharias (pn, cond); Lausanne C O • MDG GOLD 940 1759-6 (54:20)


This release, Volume 9 in Christian Zacharias’s ongoing cycle of the Mozart piano concertos, is wonderfully satisfying in every way. I can’t imagine that anyone could find any fault with his natural-sounding piano playing, the clear, sweet sound of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the spacious, clear recorded sound, or, of course, the music itself.


The 12th concerto is an early example of the special grace and intimate expression found in Mozart’s other notable works in A Major: the 23rd concerto, the quintet and concerto for clarinet. The untroubled, celebratory 26th concerto, usually referred to as the “Coronation”, though not here, is sometimes regarded as a less profound work than the other late Mozart concertos, but it has always been a favorite of mine. Zacharias’s wonderful phrasing, glorious ornamentation, and profound understanding of the nuances of Mozart’s keyboard style now make this my favorite performance of the piece, displacing Murray Perahia’s fine account. (I won’t give away a delightful timbral surprise that happens in the cadenza of the first movement.) In general, MDG’s recording adds some resonance to the sound of the piano, with the orchestra providing a sonic foil that’s crisp by comparison, a very pleasing overall balance.


If the other volumes in this series are comparably excellent—and Scott Noriega’s review of the 24th and 25th concertos in 36:1 indicates that they are—then Zacharias’s Mozart cycle may surpass the very best ones that use the modern piano and simply qualify as a life-enhancing event.


FANFARE: Paul Orgel

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Both concertos on this volume are from 1786: Mozart composed KV 491 in C minor in great haste on 24 March while he was working on the opera Figaro, and KV 503 in C major followed on 4 December while he was writing the Prague Symphony. Christian Zacharias and his Lausanne Chamber Orchestra have allowed themselves considerably more time – and with splendid results. This complete recording already promises to claim one of the top places on the international charts; after all, Zacharias again and again effortlessly succeeds in conveying his inimitable interpretive culture to the orchestra.

R E V I E W:



MOZART Piano Concertos: No. 24; No. 25 • Christian Zacharias (pn, cond); Lausanne CO • MDG GOLD 940 1737 (SACD: 61:22)


Some of Mozart’s piano concertos have been popular ever since they were first written. Indeed the next generation of composers following Mozart held them (that is especially the late concertos, and within this group especially the minor-keyed ones) in high esteem along with the last three of Beethoven’s. Mendelssohn is known to have loved the D-Minor Concerto, playing it often and including his own improvised cadenzas during performances. In the current recording, Christian Zacharias, a German pianist who has won numerous prizes—including first in the Geneva, the Van Cliburn, and the Ravel competitions in the early to mid 1970s—has almost completed the monumental task of recording all of Mozart’s concertos; if all of the other releases in this series have been as revealing as this one, then we are in store for one of the finer overall sets of these compositions.


Though the two concertos on the current recording often get paired for obvious reasons of numbering alone, Zacharias plays them as though they were two completely different species in a related genre. In his hands the C-Minor Concerto, K 491, sounds more like an orchestrated chamber work, one in which each orchestral part is balanced with both the piano and with the other instruments of the orchestra. The pianist maintains a light touch here, allowing the other instruments of the orchestra to take the fore when necessary; the piano is not always the most important instrument in the ensemble and Zacharias is sensitive to this. The winds, for example, especially notable in this concerto, do not merely accompany the strings or the piano adding some splashes of color here and there; in this reading they are an integral part of the whole structure of the work. Even the most overtly soloist-oriented section in the entire composition is infused with a sense of chamber music. The first-movement cadenza, normally used as a vehicle for the pianist’s virtuosity, is here used as a section of exploration and reminiscence by both the pianist and the orchestra—an oddity for sure, but a successful one. The later C-Major Concerto, K 503, is treated far differently from its predecessor. Though the pianist is just as sensitive here to his given role at any time, this concerto is seen symphonically—it is a big-boned concerto and the pianist is not afraid to highlight the boisterousness and joyfulness of this concerto through its many playful and virtuosic passages; its seeming simplicities are its delights. In addition to Zacharias’s extraordinary playing and fine conducting, much of the credit must go to his ensemble of choice: the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. The members of the orchestra do not merely play along with their soloist, they read the nuances of the soloist and comment accordingly. This small orchestra proves to be a very fine Mozart ensemble.


This is overall exquisite playing, expressive yet never over-romanticized, always period-informed yet never inhibited by that awareness. In addition to the brilliant performances, the sound of the recording must also be commented upon: It is superb. The multichannel recording adds a spaciousness, a depth to the sound that makes one feel, when one closes one’s eyes, that one is literally in the concert hall listening in on this intimate music-making. If one is looking for a new Mozart concerto cycle this would be it for me. If all of the previous releases are as fine as this one, this would indeed set a new standard. In other words, get it and enjoy!


FANFARE: Scott Noriega

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

MOZART Piano Concertos: Nos. 6, 13, 16 • Christian Zacharias (pn, cond); Lausanne Co • MDG GOLD 1667 (SACD: 67:07)


This is Volume 7 in what is apparently going to be a complete set of the Mozart piano concertos by Christian Zacharias. I asked to review it because I was so impressed by his performances of the five Beethoven concertos with Armin Jordan conducting (Cascavelle 3118), in which Zacharias’s enlivened inflections of phrase and rhythmic acuity were combined with original and highly imaginative cadenzas that acted within the concertos like mini-fantasias.


I am not at all disappointed by his solo playing here, which is crisp yet lighter in tone than his Beethoven, which is wholly appropriate for Mozart. The problem, to me, is his conducting and the overall performance and sound quality of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. Its playing is “soft” both in phrasing and attack, coming across almost as background or elevator music. This was the kind of Mozart sound in vogue during the late 1970s and early ’80s, before the historically informed crowd moved in to show us that such earlier conductors as Toscanini, Furtwängler, Doráti, and Markevitch had it right, that unlike Haydn, whose music sounds good at a slightly relaxed pace and with a wide dynamic range, Mozart tends toward sameness and boredom when given that approach. Mozart needs to be performed with a combination of emotional commitment and sharply etched contours, as in the performances of Harnoncourt, Norrington, Pinnock, and others. In the case of the piano concertos, one can scarcely imagine or achieve finer performances than those of the entire series recorded by fortepianist Jos van Immerseel and Anima Eterna on Canal Grande 8016.


Of course, there are listeners who are much in favor of this particular style of Mozart performance. I myself was one of them in the early 1980s, when I became a fan of Murray Perahia’s then-groundbreaking series of Mozart concertos. For them, then, this disc and its six other counterparts issued so far will make quite satisfying listening. The hybrid multichannel sound is warm and round, which again de-emphasizes the music’s edge.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
Personnel: Christian Zacharias (piano).
Recording information: Métropole Lausanne (06/25/2008-06/28/2008).

"We have now reached Volume 5 of MDG’s estimable series of Mozart piano concertos with Christian Zacharias, the first such SACD series to my knowledge and a highly worthy effort... Zacharias’s articulation is spectacular in these pieces, just the right amount of separation between the notes in the faster passages, and an almost organ-like style of playing that allows the melodies to truly soar with a seamless and unobtrusive melisma. The sound is fabulous, the best on any Mozart concerto series so far, and is recommendable without hesitation." -- Steven Ritter, Audiophile Audition

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Also available in standard Stereo.



MOZART Piano Concertos: No. 19 in F; No. 20 in d • Christian Zacharias (pn, cond); Lausanne CO • MDG 940 1529 (Hybrid multichannel SACD 57:17)


This CD can be deeply admired on a number of levels. Zacharias is a supremely elegant pianist, ideal for Mozart in so many ways. He feels the pulse naturally, finding rhythmic subtlety in a way that underlies the theatrical sense of the music, and his precision and pearly tonality are a delight to the ear. He also demonstrates the real artistic virtue of being both the orchestral conductor and soloist in the Mozart concertos. There is, when it is done at the high level that is achieved here, a chamber-music-like intimacy that is much harder to manage when there are two strong personalities involved. The magnificent, bewitching timbral blending that belongs to Mozart alone is heard with much greater presence this way. As the icing on the cake, there is the superb recorded sound achieved by MDG producer Werner Dabringhaus, one of the best in the business.


Yes, Virginia, there is a caveat. All of the qualities described above lead to a heavenly account of the F-Major Concerto, separated by a mere two months from one of Mozart’s darkest works, the D-Minor Concerto. In that music, despite a general excellence in execution, Zacharias shows just enough emotional reticence, as evinced in too little dynamic contrast and a lack of the last degree of urgency in the stormier passages to keep this reading out of the first tier. I’m not suggesting that a pianist needs to tear up the keyboard; it is possible to combine elegance and fire, as do Uchida, Brendel, and Pletnev, or among great older recordings, Schnabel, Kempff, or Michelangeli. On the other hand, I can easily imagine other listeners preferring the cooler style of Zacharias, which handily conveys the spirit of the music. This is, without a doubt, a very beautiful Mozart disc, part of an ongoing series that deserves the highest attention, especially to those who can live without a growl in this music.


FANFARE: Peter Burwasser

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

This third volume in the series from the electrifying combination of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and Manchester Camerata under Gabor Takacs-Nagy explores the final two of the six piano concertos of the year 1784, on which Mozart staked his reputation as both a performer and composer. Alongside these works features the pioneering Quintet for Piano and Winds, also from 1784, the first written for this combination of instruments and a work which Mozart regarded as his finest to date. The consecutive Kochel numbers of the three piano works hint at a remarkable story: not only were they all written in the same extraordinarily productive year, but all were completed in the same month, March, when Mozart was just twenty-eight years old. The two concertos form a pair, and in letters to his father Mozart makes it clear that he wrote them for his own performance: “Nobody but I owns these new concertos in B flat and D,” adding in another letter, two weeks later, “I consider them both to be concertos which make one sweat.” Heard in this context, Bavouzet’s playing is all the more astonishing.

REVIEWS:

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has joined forces with Gábor Takács-Nagy and the Manchester Camerata to record the complete Mozart piano concertos. This is the third volume in the series. Bavouzet has won awards for his recordings of Haydn, Debussy, Prokofiev and Grieg. This recording shows that he is also a born Mozartian.

The three works on this recording all date from 1784 when Mozart was newly married and beginning to forge a freelance career for himself. The Piano Concerto in D Major K451 uses trumpets with timpani and has a distinctive military character. Takács-Nagy’s tempo is spot on in the opening movement marked Allegro assai. He and the Manchester Camerata open the movement with vibrancy and dynamism, and bring an infectious enthusiasm to Mozart’s springy dotted rhythms. Bavouzet’s phrasing and passagework are a model of classical decorum, and he uses subtle rubato to superb effect. There is excellent interplay between piano and orchestra, with phrases passing seamlessly between the players. The music is beautifully characterised. The militaristic opening theme gives way to the camp, whimsical second subject. The Manchester Camerata’s woodwind section are enchanting at the start of the slow movement. Bavouzet brings charm and restraint to the movement before giving us a moment of heart-stopping poetry in the interlude before the return of the opening them. The finale has enormous fizz and sparkle. There is tight, spirited interplay between soloist and orchestra. Bavouzet brings enormous energy to the increasingly elaborate passagework. It is impossible not to be swept along with the joys of music-making.

This is an outstanding recording and is worthy to sit alongside the great Mozart concerto recordings such as those by Perahia and Uchida.

-- MusicWeb International

Will listeners raised on virtuoso performances of Mozart's piano concertos be able to make room in the hearts for Christian Zacharias' recordings with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne? It depends on how willing they are to forego the pleasures of virtuosity for the pleasures music-making. This is not to say that Zacharias isn't a virtuoso pianist. As his twenty years of recordings make very clear, he has talents and abilities far beyond those of most mortal pianists. But it is to say that, as those recordings make equally clear, Zacharias is far more interested in music-making than he is in virtuosity. As both pianist and conductor here, Zacharias leads performances which are all about sympathetic interplay, about musicians listening to each other, about the meaning behind the notes and the joy inside the notes. The Lausanne musicians respond joyfully to Zacharias' direction, playing with him and not for him and breathing life into every line and sonority. While listeners raised on virtuoso performances may find something lacking, those listeners who value playing together more than showing off will find much to enjoy.

Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm's sound is ideally balanced between detail and depth and between immediacy and atmosphere, thereby providing an aural image of a real pianist with a real orchestra in a real place in real time.

- James Leonard, AllMusic Guide

The effervescent and communicative energy of Bavouzet and Takacs-Nagy is encapsulated again in this second volume of their Mozart series. These exhilarating interpretations of Mozart’s piano concertos of 1784, faultlessly supported by the Manchester Camerata, follow highly praised concerts as well as a first volume which was “Editor’s Choice” in Pianist. The two concertos presented here are among the six that Mozart composed in Vienna in an extraordinarily productive year. As Bavouzet states in an exclusive personal note, they “share their association with operatic and symphonic styles. The contrasts of mood in their first movements relate them more closely with music for the operatic stage, while their finales are conceived in purely instrumental terms and make reference to the symphonic domain. On the other hand, these two works are complete opposites as far as their use of wind instruments is concerned. In KV 449 their inclusion is ad libitum, whereas they very often play the principal role in KV 459.”

REVIEWS:

Led by Adi Brett, the ensemble is ideally sized for this repertoire, especially in the string department. Because clearly only players of the highest calibre are engaged, the character here is much more akin to the intimacy of a chamber group ensemble than a true symphonic ensemble, the clue, of course, partly being in the name. But that is not to say that there is not power-a-plenty when called for. The very opening of the E flat Concerto, in fact, says it all in a nutshell: absolute precision in the ornaments, great clarity of line where any instrument that has something important to say at any one point stands out, but never dominates the texture, and the impressive attack as the music goes into the relative minor (C minor, and one of the composer’s favourite keys for drama) around twenty-five seconds into the exposition. These all mark out this performance as something special, even before the soloist has made his own telling first contribution. It is clear that both sheer dynamism and enthusiasm in the orchestral playing emanates from the man at the front, Budapest-born Gábor Takács-Nagy, who also works just as hard to nurture the more lyrical side of the music. That is something he is more able to do by forsaking the baton, and itself something perfectly feasible for this size of ensemble.

But when Bavouzet makes his first appearance, he takes over exactly where the Camerata have left off, attesting to a great feeling of empathy between soloist and conductor. All too often, the soloist’s body language can suggest a degree of displeasure at the way the orchestra deals with the opening themes that the soloist will then make use of in the ensuing solo exposition.

In discussing his previous Mozart CD, Bavouzet explains his choice of the Yamaha CFX instrument: “When considering a piano for this project I immediately thought about a Yamaha. The wonderful comfort of the keyboard action, the refined sound, and the natural balance between bass and treble were qualities that made my choice obvious and perfect for the Mozart Concertos.” Although a life-long Steinway aficionado, I have to agree with his comments, in as much as the piano-sound on this new CD is concerned, enhanced, of course, by the outstanding fidelity of the recording as a whole, and the warm acoustic of the venue.

With the added generosity of two well-known and much loved Divertimenti—in D major, KV 136, and F major, KV 138, respectively—where the Manchester Camerata really comes into its own with some stunning playing, there can be little doubt that this new CD is the perfect successor.

-- MusicWeb International