Mozart: Fantasias & Rondos (Richard Egarr)

Album review

Put on track 3. Go ahead, put it on. You seriously won't believe what comes through the headphones. This is Mozart? This super-virtuosic, super-vitriolic, supernatural spook house music is little Wolfgang's fantasie [Capriccio] in C major? Where's the charmingly elegant and endlessly delightful Mozart? As a matter of fact, that Mozart is also represented on this disc -- try, for instance, track 11, the Eine kleine Gigue in G major; is that crazy counterpoint a hoot or what? But for the most part, that lighthearted Mozart is less present on this recital than a whole host of other Mozarts. There's the moody Mozart of the Rondo in A minor, the melancholy Mozart of the Adagio in B minor, the blissful Mozart of the Adagio für Glassharmonika in C major, among many, many others. For those who think that Mozart on the piano sounds either like the C major Sonata or the Turkish Rondo in A minor, this disc will blow you away. It might, however, take some getting used to for the simple reason that Richard Egarr isn't playing a modern concert grand piano but rather a fortepiano. With its plucked-not-stuck action and its quill-and-metal not velvet-and-wood sound, the fortepiano may be the instrument for which Mozart conceived these works, but sonically, it is also a long, long way from the contemporary piano. Still, once you get used to it, the sound of the fortepiano has an intimacy and an expressivity the piano cannot equal. Besides, no matter what the mood of the music, Egarr's interpretations are consistently convincing -- although his tempo in the Rondo in A minor is a bit too inflexible -- and his technique is unfailingly impressive as he nails every note in the score. Listeners familiar with the more intimate sound of the fortepiano may find Harmonia Mundi's sound too close for comfort, but there are things to be said for sitting on the bench next to the player.
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