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Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano) Kristian Bezuidenhout is a superb fortepianist who brings these dramatic works vividly to life and makes the strongest possible case for an instrument of the composer's times, eclipsing all modern piano performances including even our beloved Gilbert Schuchter on Bösendorfer [Tudor 741-752]. He disposes at the outset any residual notion of Mozart as a pretty, small composer, by beginnng with the huge C minor fantasia and the big sonata associated with it, and ending with a set of variations on a Gluck tune which exploits his chosen instrument's potential in 'a tour de force of virtuosity'[John Irving]. Kristian Bezuidenhout on fortepiano can be heard in London on New Year's Eve, launching Mozart Unwrapped, a major festival at Kings Place; early enough (6 p.m.) to not interfere with festivities - a concert absolutely not to be missed, particularly as it seems that period pianos may not be featured in the rest of the seven weeks concerts. [However, John Irving, Director of the Institute of Musical Research, University of London, who provides Bezuidenhout's booklet notes, will be demonstrating a similar instrument in a Study Day on 16 April...] The HIP (Historically Informed Performance) issue is virtually ignored in the Kings Place brochure, with no indication there even that on 31 December Bezuidenhout will be playing fortepiano! Leon McCauley has 'no qualms about performing on a Steinway - Mozart would have been amazed by the possibilities of the modern piano'. It is time to stop insulating audiences from becoming 'amazed by the possibilities of authentic period pianos'... Peter Grahame Woolf See Classical Net review of this disc
MOZART Complete Sonatas, Fantasies & Variations, Vol 2 Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano) Vol 2 - Harmonia Mundi 907498 Kristian Bezuidenhout's complete series of Mozart's solo keyboards works on the Harmonia Mundi label has now reached volume 2. The quality of the set so far is excellent in every respect.
Bezuidenhout's effective solution is to treat the movement's second section (from the central double-bar) as if it were already the repeat, and he embellishes Mozart's notation as would be normal in a historically-informed approach. All very intelligent, as are his numerous creative interventions throughout his readings. A particularly beautiful example is the central slow movement of this same sonata where Bezuidenhout gives free rein to his imagination. The fortepiano used on the recording is a 1987 copy by Derek Adlam of a Viennese instrument by Anton Walther of c.1795 - a very fine instrument much heard on recordings and in concerts.
A rather more ringing and resonant tone quality is found on the 1986 Christopher Clarke copy of the very same original instrument (in the German National Museum, Nuremberg) used for K.330 in the complete recording of Mozart's sonatas by Alexei Lubimov made in 1990 and available on ERATO.
The two recordings also offer a fascinating comparison between historically informed approaches some twenty years apart. Rather more spacious in character and pace than Bezuidenhout (and in a more resonant acoustic), Lubimov's K.330 depends for its effect rather more on constructing long lines than on the gestures and articulations of the moment (an approach perhaps brought from his experience of playing the modern grand).
Lubimov generally lets Mozart's notation do the talking, only rarely departing from the letter of the score. His grace-notes come before, not on, the beat. The balance is heavily in favour of the treble (just as one would automatically voice the textures on a modern grand). Exceptionally beautiful sound is foregrounded in his interpretation - a further hint at the Russian school of playing from which he comes. When it comes to structure, there are some interesting decisions. At the end of K.330's first movement, for instance, Lubimov chooses to do the second-half repeat, highlighting just how strange it sounds to end with the coda and then go back halfway! The second time around, the coda is treated to an enormous rallentando. A sign of its times, perhaps?
Nevertheless, Lubimov's embellishments to the slow movement of K.330 are a delight (and completely different from Bezuidenhout's), and offer a glimpse of how Mozart might have been embellished by the early romantics. Kristian Bezuidenhout's complete series of Mozart's keyboards works on the Harmonia Mundi label has now reached volume 2. The quality of the set so far is excellent in every respect. Bezuidenhout's approach is one of creative engagement with Mozart's notation. An example of the sophistication of his approach is the first movement of the C major Sonata, K.330 - a piece Mozart probably composed for his lady pupils in Vienna in 1782. Normally Mozart marks both sections of the sonata-form for repeats, and players all too rarely take that into account. Unusually, this movement ends with what is obviously a coda, but at the end there is still the repeat mark. What to do? It makes little musical sense to repeat in this instance since the whole point of the coda is to round the movement off at this point (which it very convincingly does).
Bezuidenhout's effective solution is to treat the movement's second section (from the central double-bar) as if it were already the repeat, and he embellishes Mozart's notation as would be normal in a historically-informed approach. All very intelligent, as are his numerous creative interventions throughout his readings. A particularly beautiful example is the central slow movement of this same sonata where Bezuidenhout gives free rein to his imagination. The fortepiano used on the recording is a 1987 copy by Derek Adlam of a Viennese instrument by Anton Walther of c.1795 - a very fine instrument much heard on recordings and in concerts.
A rather more ringing and resonant tone quality is found on the 1986 Christopher Clarke copy of the very same original instrument (in the German National Museum, Nuremberg) used for K.330 in the complete recording of Mozart's sonatas by Alexei Lubimov made in 1990 and available on ERATO.
The two recordings also offer a fascinating comparison between historically informed approaches some twenty years apart. Rather more spacious in character and pace than Bezuidenhout (and in a more resonant acoustic), Lubimov's K.330 depends for its effect rather more on constructing long lines than on the gestures and articulations of the moment (an approach perhaps brought from his experience of playing the modern grand).
Lubimov generally lets Mozart's notation do the talking, only rarely departing from the letter of the score. His grace-notes come before, not on, the beat. The balance is heavily in favour of the treble (just as one would automatically voice the textures on a modern grand). Exceptionally beautiful sound is foregrounded in his interpretation - a further hint at the Russian school of playing from which he comes. When it comes to structure, there are some interesting decisions. At the end of K.330's first movement, for instance, Lubimov chooses to do the second-half repeat, highlighting just how strange it sounds to end with the coda and then go back halfway! The second time around, the coda is treated to an enormous rallentando. A sign of its times, perhaps?
Nevertheless, Lubimov's embellishments to the slow movement of K.330 are a delight (and completely different from Bezuidenhout's), and offer a glimpse of how Mozart might have been embellished by the early romantics.
John Irving
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Mozart Sonatas 