# Need to find favorite Mozart Pianist!



## agustis (Feb 3, 2021)

Okay I need a little help. I'm looking for a favorite Mozart Pianist. One of my favorite ways to get to know a composer is to find a pianist who I really like for them and then I listen to all the works. So preferably this would be someone with lots of recordings out there.

Here are some of my favorite pianist for different composers to give you an idea. 

Bach - Glenn Gould (Some Grigory Sokolov as well for some)
Schumann - Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sviatoslav Richter
Chopin - Vladimir Ashkenazy, Arthur Rubinstein
Rachmaninov - Evgeny Kissin, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Liszt - Evgeny Kissin
Beethoven - Alfred Brendel
Scarlatti - Vladimir Horowitz
Satie - Reinbert de Leeuw

Thank You for the suggestions! If possible link your favorite performance of a Mozart performance by them!


----------



## mossyembankment (Jul 28, 2020)

I think Mitsuko Uchida is generally regarded as the master, but I'm very fond of Jenő Jandó's performances of the Mozart piano sonatas.


----------



## sibylla (Jun 13, 2021)

How about this one? She is one of my favoite pianists..


----------



## agustis (Feb 3, 2021)

mossyembankment said:


> I think Mitsuko Uchida is generally regarded as the master, but I'm very fond of Jenő Jandó's performances of the Mozart piano sonatas.


Something about Mitsuko Uchida doesn't agree with me. I don't know what...I'm not a professional musician. This purely a hobby for me. But I tried her and Murray Perahia. I can't put my finger on why but something is off to me for them both.

I've never heard of Jenő Jandó before but that Sonata No. 11 sounded great! I'll explore more of his recordings! Thanks!


----------



## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Vikingur Olafsson


----------



## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

Robert Casadesus










...and Rudolf Serkin


----------



## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

One more vote for Uchida.


----------



## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

agustis said:


> Something about Mitsuko Uchida doesn't agree with me. I don't know what...I'm not a professional musician. This purely a hobby for me. But I tried her and Murray Perahia. I can't put my finger on why but something is off to me for them both.
> 
> I've never heard of Jenő Jandó before but that Sonata No. 11 sounded great! I'll explore more of his recordings! Thanks!


Jando is a tremendous all-rounder. He's Naxos' "house pianist" so there can sometimes be an assumption that he'd trot out penny-in-the-slot routine readings, but in my experience plenty of them are well up with the best and this is certainly one.

I'm with you on Uchida, finding her readings a bit self-conscious - she seems to me to peck at the notes somewhat (interestingly I've heard her live conducting from the piano and was more impressed then). Perahia's another matter - him I do rate highly (his K482 in particular is magnificent IMHO), perhaps with the exception of the D minor concerto which I find a little too soft-grained in his hands. Another pianist whose Mozart has given me a lot of enjoyment is Maria Joao Pires.


----------



## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Friedrich Gulda, but his recordings are uneven (of the concertos with Abbado K 466 and 503 are too slow, 467 is very good though and the K 488, 537 and Double (w/ Chick Corea) with Harnoncourt even better) and the "tapes" dug out by his son and published on DG have sometimes atrocious sound. There are about 5 sonatas, one disc on DG (K 570, 576, 475) and one on Amadeo (331 and 333, I think) with good studio sound that are worth seeking out.
Otherwise I tend to pick and choose but a good option for someone who recorded both all concertos and sonatas in good sound would be Christian Zacharias.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

agustis said:


> Okay I need a little help. I'm looking for a favorite Mozart Pianist. One of my favorite ways to get to know a composer is to find a pianist who I really like for them and then I listen to all the works. So preferably this would be someone with lots of recordings out there.
> 
> Here are some of my favorite pianist for different composers to give you an idea.
> 
> ...


Try your existing favourites. Certainly Brendel and Richter and possibly Sokolov too -- there's a decent very early Ashkenazy recording of sonatas -- this one

https://www.discogs.com/release/120...-Klaviersonaten-Sonata-For-2-Pianos-Sonate-Fü

Gould excelled in the 24th piano concerto. There's also a rather invigorating live recording of sonatas, rather fun

https://www.discogs.com/release/17321641-Glenn-Gould-W-A-Mozart-Four-Piano-Sonatas


----------



## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I've been listening to the Brendel Phillips recordings now, had listened to Uchida a few weeks ago, but my long time favorite is Christoph Eschenbach.


----------



## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

I also like the Rudolf Buchbinder recordings of the concertos:


----------



## JTS (Sep 26, 2021)

Try Ashtray Annie (Fischer)


----------



## AndorFoldes (Aug 25, 2012)

Based on your preferences I would have to suggest Brendel or Ashkenazy, both of whom recorded complete sets of Mozart's piano concertos. I would try sampling both of those.


----------



## JTS (Sep 26, 2021)

One must always remember with Mozart the maxim of Artur Schnabel 1882–1951
Children are given Mozart because of the small quantity of the notes; grown-ups avoid Mozart because of the great quality of the notes. The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes—ah, that is where the art resides!

Where Fischer, Serkin, are masters


----------



## gvn (Dec 14, 2019)

agustis said:


> Okay I need a little help. I'm looking for a favorite Mozart Pianist. One of my favorite ways to get to know a composer is to find a pianist who I really like for them and then I listen to all the works. So preferably this would be someone with lots of recordings out there.


Mozart's music has a curious kind of "shot-silk" quality--it looks very different from different perspectives--so I personally would find it hard to single out _one_ Mozart pianist in the way that I'd single out, say, Rubinstein in Chopin or de Leeuw in Satie.

Confining my attention to pianists who have left "lots of recordings," three complete sets of the concertos keep coming down from my shelves year after year. These three are (in alphabetical order):

*Ashkenazy* cond. Ashkenazy (lots of Russian soul, but with an inner reticence, even shyness, that keeps it from going over the top).

*Brendel* cond. Marriner (for drama & play of intellect, the antithesis of the "Dresden china" approach). (Brendel also did some fine later recordings cond. Mackerras, and some early ones with uneven orchestral support on Vox, but the middle-period Marriner cycle is his only complete one.)

*Perahia* cond. Perahia (for delicacy & poetry).

All three also recorded large slabs of Mozart's solo piano works (but not all of them--very very few pianists have recorded _all_ the solo works as well as all the concertos!).

Previous posters suggested starting with pianists you already know you like, and that makes sense to me. Representative samples of Ashkenazy's cycle can be heard here, and samples of Brendel/Marriner here.

Many other pianists have left fine Mozart recordings, but in most cases either they recorded only a tantalizing proportion of the repertoire (e.g., Serkin [in his CBS/Sony period] and Haskil, both wonderful), or else they take more idiosyncratic approaches which would make them more risky recommendations in my view (e.g., Uchida, perceived by some listeners as too mannered).


----------



## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I like Uchida, Brendel and Alicia de Larrocha.


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Kreisler jr said:


> Friedrich Gulda, but his recordings are uneven (of the concertos with Abbado K 466 and 503 are too slow, 467 is very good though and the K 488, 537 and Double (w/ Chick Corea) with Harnoncourt even better) and the "tapes" dug out by his son and published on DG have sometimes atrocious sound. There are about 5 sonatas, one disc on DG (K 570, 576, 475) and one on Amadeo (331 and 333, I think) with good studio sound that are worth seeking out.
> Otherwise I tend to pick and choose but a good option for someone who recorded both all concertos and sonatas in good sound would be Christian Zacharias.


For the concertos I think that fits well with what I feel about those recordings. I do also like the Brautigam recordings and the Goode ones with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. For the sonatas Gulda is generally a little special and there are several others that almost always make me happy - Arrau (which I hadn't expected when I first listened to them) and, more controversially, Fazil Say both have full sets that I return to very often. I know many others (including Uchida and Pires) but they are very good for me but not quite as much as those three.


----------



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Just to really mix things up: *Bezuidenhout* is my current favorite-plays the fortepiano. I can't really do Mozart on the modern concert grand anymore. *Bezuidenhout* has only recorded 5 of Mozart's piano concerti but, in my opinion, they're light years ahead of anything recorded to date in their spontaneity, energy, freshness.


----------



## JTS (Sep 26, 2021)

Mandryka said:


> Try your existing favourites. Certainly Brendel and Richter and possibly Sokolov too -- there's a decent very early Ashkenazy recording of sonatas -- this one
> 
> https://www.discogs.com/release/120...-Klaviersonaten-Sonata-For-2-Pianos-Sonate-Fü
> 
> ...


Gould's complete Mozart sonatas is to be avoided. Appeared at a time when his eccentricities had taken over his reason abd he had gotten it into his head that Mozart was a 'bad composer'. To try and prove his point he played his music badly. Which was a shame because in his earlier life he was a very good Mozart pianist.


----------



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

//To try and prove his point he played his music badly. //

This is sheer mythology and repeated especially by those who prefer their Mozart played with the mawkish sentimentality of the post Mahlerian era. That one doesn't go to Gould to hear an historical informed performance is for sure and defs true, but the notion that he tried to play the Mozart is badly as possible is mythology. He found Mozart's sonatas to be boring (which they sort of are) and wanted to make something interesting out of them. There's nothing touches Gould's playing of K 310's opening movement in my opinion. It's madness, but I love it.


----------



## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

One's preferences don't have to go to the extreme of what Peter Shaffer called Mahler's "lachrymose iterance" to find Gould's approach to Mozart over-personalised and equally out of place at the other end of the spectrum, where one might expect to find the view that Mozart's sonatas are even "sort of" boring.


----------



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Animal the Drummer said:


> One's preferences don't have to go to the extreme of what Peter Shaffer called Mahler's "lachrymose iterance" to find Gould's approach to Mozart over-personalised and equally out of place at the other end of the spectrum, where one might expect to find the view that Mozart's sonatas are even "sort of" boring.


No, I agree. What I take issue with is the myth that Gould deliberately tried to mangle Mozart.


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

vtpoet said:


> I can't really do Mozart on the modern concert grand anymore.


My thoughts exactly.


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Uchida's performance of K.466 on the modern grand is a rare exception though, because to me, it doesn't quite give me the feeling Bilson describes as "lovely sort of baroque angel kind of Mozart".


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

(András Schiff · George Malcolm)


----------



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

hammeredklavier said:


> My thoughts exactly.


Levin: "_Every instrument wishes to be played in a certain way_." at the 3:43 mark.

This is also true of carpentry tools. I built a log cabin using, in part, tools from the 19th century and they too wished to be used in a certain way (as I discovered) and if you ignored them the results could be much worse than the bite of a fortepiano. Peeling logs, for example. Antique dealers generally get it all wrong. They put short handles on the spuds. That's like putting a short little handle on a broom or a garden rake.


----------



## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Animal the Drummer said:


> One's preferences don't have to go to the extreme of what Peter Shaffer called Mahler's "lachrymose iterance" to find Gould's approach to Mozart over-personalised and equally out of place at the other end of the spectrum, where one might expect to find the view that Mozart's sonatas are even "sort of" boring.


I thought the common charge was that Gould was too fast and robotic in Mozart, not over-personalised? I listened to his K 309 and 310 last night and found them quite good. The first movement of the a minor is too fast and the non legato/staccato can get sometimes a bit relentless and I also dislike the lack of all repeats but the energy and clarity are remarkable and I found them worthwhile listening. 
Admittedly, I am not the greatest fan of these sonatas and somehow ended up giving away two decent complete recordings (Badura-Skoda and Endres) because they seemed to be lacking in distinction and now I am left with a mix of rather different single recordings and two problematic complete sets (Gould and Gulda).


----------



## JTS (Sep 26, 2021)

vtpoet said:


> //To try and prove his point he played his music badly. //
> 
> This is sheer mythology and repeated especially by those who prefer their Mozart played with the mawkish sentimentality of the post Mahlerian era. That one doesn't go to Gould to hear an historical informed performance is for sure and defs true, but the notion that he tried to play the Mozart is badly as possible is mythology. He found Mozart's sonatas to be boring (which they sort of are) and wanted to make something interesting out of them. There's nothing touches Gould's playing of K 310's opening movement in my opinion. It's madness, but I love it.


Sorry I have Gould playing the Mozart piano sonatas and it is just sheer bad style. If he found them boring he should not have played them and certainly not have recorded them. It just sounds as though he found them boring and intent on making them sound as boring as possible. Richter had the best idea with music he didn't like - he just didn't play it.


----------



## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

hammeredklavier said:


> My thoughts exactly.


My complaint about recordings on modern grands is the "sameness" and standardization of the sound. Fortepianos, like harpsichords, often seem so individually different that generalizations about them can be tricky. Maybe a lot has to do with well vs equal temperament. The instruments in your examples sound very different from one another to me, and don't sound _quite_ the same to me as the Silbermann copy here. I'd love to have one of these:


----------



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

//Fortepianos, like harpsichords, often seem so individually different that generalizations about them can be tricky.//

it's a sickness, but I will specifically buy certain performances based on the pianoforte being played rather than the performer. I like Staier's piano far more than Vermeulen's for example. I have Vermeulen's recordings but I just don't share (yet) his love for the particular fortepiano he found, literally, in an old attic. But then that's what I love about fortepianos. They each of their personality. Schiff has only recently begun performing on fortepianos and that's because he only "recently" found one that he could have a relationship with, as it were.

*Edit:* The early Cristofori pianofortes, by the way (from the 1720's!) are astonishingly beautiful instruments _far ahead of their time_, having better sound and action than most of the fortepianos (in my opinion) that followed for decades. I think Robert Hill plays a Cristofori.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

vtpoet said:


> *Edit:* The early Cristofori pianofortes, by the way (from the 1720's!) are astonishingly beautiful instruments _far ahead of their time_, having better sound and action than most of the fortepianos (in my opinion) that followed for decades. I think Robert Hill plays a Cristofori.


There's very little on record of these pianos as far as I know. I know someone who played Beethoven 106 on a Cristofori and he said it made him completely reappraise the music -- I am keen to hear them.


----------



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Are you sure it was on a Cristofori? Beethoven's 106 came almost a hundred years after Cristofori died! _May 4, 1655 - January 27, 1731_. I could be wrong, but I don't think the Cristofori had the necessary range for the Hammerklavier?
*
Edit:* WF Bach played on a Cristofori reproduction circa 1720:


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

vtpoet said:


> Are you sure it was on a Cristofori? Beethoven's 106 came almost a hundred years after Cristofori died! _May 4, 1655 - January 27, 1731_. I could be wrong, but I don't think the Cristofori had the necessary range for the Hammerklavier?
> *
> Edit:* WF Bach played on a Cristofori reproduction circa 1720:


That's what he said! But not 106, my mistake, 111. He said the trills sounded amazing.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Mandryka said:


> That's what he said! But not 106, my mistake, 111. He said the trills sounded amazing.


I'm talking rubbish. I checked the email and it was a Streicher which made the trills sound so good. Just ignore me.


----------



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Okay. I believe you but I wonder how he played the notes that exceeded the piano's range?


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

vtpoet said:


> Okay. I believe you but I wonder how he played the notes that exceeded the piano's range?


That happens in op 111/ii for a streicher piano? Maybe he just played the trills. maybe he lied!

The wiki for Streichers - I just checked - shows no Beethoven using one on record, but I have Harvey Ritner's Brahms.


----------



## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

Mandryka said:


> I'm talking rubbish. I checked the email and it was a Streicher which made the trills sound so good. Just ignore me.


It's understandable, there were a lot of makers and their products had individual characteristics. You'd have to be a specialist (which I'm not) to keep up.


----------



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Also, I'm not specialist on these pianos. And I missed where you said it was a Streicher, not a Cristofori. My bad.


----------



## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

As I see your list, I think you'll like Gulda.


----------



## BlackAdderLXX (Apr 18, 2020)

I really like Geza Anda. Also, if Edna Stern we're to do a complete cycle I would buy it in a second


----------



## agustis (Feb 3, 2021)

I think it's silly that I can't edit my first post to let everyone know my findings. But thank you to everyone for your suggestions. I listened to ALL of them. It took a long time but as of 1/11/2022 I have listened to all suggestions listed. 

I really enjoyed lots of them but I was looking for someone who had all of the Piano works recorded or at least a good majority. 

Big shout out to @ Heliogabo. I think my favorite overall was Friedrich Gulda. I feel like he has the elegance needed for Mozart but still has lots of that passion that I find in many Russian pianist. (I know he isn't Russian)

Thanks again to everyone!


----------

