Image: ©️ Sussie Ahlburg
The sonatas of Mozart are unique; they are too easy for children, and too difficult for artists.”
Artur Schnabel
This famous quote by the great pianist Artur Schnabel seems feating for this release. Peter Donohoe, who one often associates with almost effortless virtuosity of the 19th and 20th century piano music, brings us what is promised to be a full cycle of the Mozart Piano Sonatas. This volume contains the early sonatas K. 280 and 284, along with the late K. 570 and the famous Fantasia K. 397.
Donohoe, as it happens, plays here 3 of the better annotated Mozart piano pieces (the sonatas are often rather sparingly marked), and it’s delightful to hear how meticulously observant Donohoe is, while remaining true to the natural flow of the music.
These performances are totally pianistic in the best sense of the word, never too cautious with dynamic or pedaling, as with other cycles such as Uchida or, more recently, Blackshaw. The slow movements are presented with a somber, cohesive concentration that only a masterful pianist can serve (the slow movement of K. 570 is the highlight of this release), the finales are readily playful. And it’s fascinating to hear how Donohoe makes the first movements a statement which projects to the whole sonata, making each of them sounds like a complete creation rather than 3 stitched movements. Unwritten ornamentations are sparingly used, only as a necessary addition to the musical argument.
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Nice recording and instrument choice too, made at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with a C.Bechstein grand. The piano fits the interpretation superbly, allowing the pianist a full yet direct sound, with no edginess (an unfortunate inconvenience in the well-liked Pires two cycles).
There is no shortage of Mozart Piano Sonata cycles in the catalog, with recent successful surveys include William Youn’s, who has already been praised in these pages, always creative, almost too unpredictably so. Ian Blackshaw gives a vulnerable and heartfelt account on the Wigmore Hall label, if a bit uneven as a whole. Classic cycles as Uchida’s and Pires’ continue to impress, but this new album will surely make listeners eager to hear the next volumes. Recommended.
