Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #612548 in Music
• Released on: 2007-12-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

Wolfie's Stunning Minor-Key Sonata...
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[Digitally Remastered Limited Edition Issue of the Album Classic in a Deluxe, Miniaturized LP Sleeve Replica of the Original Vinyl Album Artwork. ]

In the early-'70s I had this disc on LP and it was always one of my favorites. Cover art shows an old piano keyboard w/small portrait of Amadeus.

Moreover, the star of this disc is one of Mozart's rare minor-key works--the Sonata in a-minor, K. 310--and Gould's scintillating realization of same, recorded in 1969.

Mozart's minor-key works can almost be counted on one hand:

the two g-minor Symphonies, K. 183 & 550 ;
the g-minor string Quintet, K. 516;
the g-minor piano Quartet, K. 478;
the piano Fantasies in d-minor & c-minor, K. 397 & 475;
the d-minor piano Concerto, K. 466;
the c-minor piano Concerto, K. 491
the d-minor string Quartet, K. 421;
the e-minor violin Sonata, K. 304;
the a-minor piano Sonata, K. 310;
the c-minor piano Sonata, K. 457;
the late great f-minor Fantasy for organ (or piano duet), K. 608;
and of course the d-minor Requiem, K. 626.

Suffice it to say that ~99% of Mozart's oeuvre is comprised of cheerful major-key works. Why was this so? Firstly, it was Amadeus' cheerful nature; secondly, at the time of high-Classicism it was demanded. Serious minor-key works were un-"popular."

It is my firm belief, however, that some of Mozart's greatest music is found in his few minor-key works. Too, I believe that had he lived longer, he would surely have produced more serious minor-key works as he matured.

The brilliant a-minor Sonata was written in Paris in the 1770s when Mozart's mother had died.

I've heard Uchida play this, and lemme tell ya: she don't come within a country-mile of Gould's vehement pathos and vituperative anger in the opening allegro maestoso: this has to do with Gould's vision and execution of the rhythmic structure. Goulds timing and digital techinque are absolutely hair-raising at the point of the run up the keyboard at the recapitulation of the opening theme.

Gould plays the middle andante exactly as Mozart demanded: cantabile con espressione: singing and richly expressive. This gorgeous and soothing movement is not without its minor-key episode, and Gould realizes this with profound sorrow. "Profound sorrow" in Mozart? Yes.

The searing urgency of the finale presto is breathtaking in its intensity.

Gould understood Mozart's essentially theatrical and operatic ethos, and this he reveals to us.

Come and get it. Mozart: The Complete Sonatas; Fantasias, K397 & K475 --(bargan price on the whole set=4CDs). Mozart: Piano Duets, Volume 1 --(Jenö Jandó is great with the f-minor Fantasy K. 608 in this version for piano four-hands). Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24; Piano Sonata K. 330; Fantasia and Fugue, K. 394; Haydn: Piano Sonata No. 49 . Mozart:Piano Concerto No.24/Schoenbe .
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