# Barenboim Mozart



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I was blown away from the first notes of hearing Barenboim play Mozart. It is bold, confident, elegant, and heroic to my ears.

I may have to pick up his cycle! I really enjoy it.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)




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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

I don't know if he recorded them more than once, but I remember the set released in '85. It is a muscular Mozart. Bold is a good word too.

Maestro Barenboim is close to the forefront of all his best interpretations, in my opinion. No doubting that it is Bareboim's Mozart. Let others play Mozart's Mozart...


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

lextune said:


> I don't know if he recorded them more than once, but I remember the set released in '85. It is a muscular Mozart. Bold is a good word too.
> 
> Maestro Barenboim is close to the forefront of all his best interpretations, in my opinion. No doubting that it is Bareboim's Mozart. Let others play Mozart's Mozart...


Muscular is a great way to put it. I like Macho Mozart, makes me feel like a man! .


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

I haven't hard Barenboim's Mozart - I have never really heard Mozart played at a top level that I did not enjoy - I think his music is so well composed - it will always sound enjoyable as long as the pianist is faithful to the score.

However - I dont like to see a big dynamic range in Mozart's piano music. Mozart himself wrote to his sister urging her not to abandon her "quiet way of playing" - and I think that is how I like to hear Mozart's piano music.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Captainnumber36 said:


> I was blown away from the first notes of hearing Barenboim play Mozart. It is bold, confident, elegant, and heroic to my ears.
> 
> I may have to pick up his cycle! I really enjoy it.


The set formerly on EMI now Warner is a very good and safe set, go for it.:angel:


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Although not familiar with Barenboim's recordings of the piano sonatas, I'm a big fan of his performances of the piano concertos.


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

Schiff is best.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Tallisman said:


> Schiff is best.


I just tossed his set into the "sell" bin. Compared to other sets I have (Klien, Ciccolini, Pires, Lubimov, Brautigam, and Barenboim, plus a hefty portion of Bezuidenhout), Schiff's Mozart is hopelessly tame.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Tallisman said:


> Schiff is best.


How about Usichda ?


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

wkasimer said:


> I just tossed his set into the "sell" bin. Compared to other sets I have (Klien, Ciccolini, Pires, Lubimov, Brautigam, and Barenboim, plus a hefty portion of Bezuidenhout), Schiff's Mozart is hopelessly tame.


My own preference, really. I don't hold that he's the best from a technical standpoint, I've just always loved his pianism since I heard his WTC


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Tallisman said:


> My own preference, really. I don't hold that he's the best from a technical standpoint, I've just always loved his pianism since I heard his WTC


I love Schiff's Bach, too - I just think that he's all wrong for Mozart. But I like Mozart best when the interpreters make him sound like early Beethoven.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Tallisman said:


> Schiff is best.


Certainly very good but for true eccentricity and enjoyment you have got to hear Glenn Gould. Mozart would have died laughing given that he enjoyed a good joke.


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

You see, this is why I don't like or have many recordings of 'famous' composers. There are so many recordings that what to buy comes down to personal taste; there are no _definitive_ recordings, and I don't have the cash or the time to scout one out myself.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Barenboim's Mozart is pretty good but not, I think, the equal of Perahia or Brendel, to name but two.


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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

Pugg said:


> How about Usichda ?


If you mean Mitsuko Uchida, and I think you do, her sets of both the Sonatas _and _the Concerti are amazing.

Extremely authoritative. Much more traditional (in the best sense of the word), than Bareboim's Mozart.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

lextune said:


> If you mean Mitsuko Uchida, and I think you do, her sets of both the Sonatas _and _the Concerti are amazing.
> 
> Extremely authoritative. Much more traditional (in the best sense of the word), than Bareboim's Mozart.


I just don't hear too much excitement in Uchida, but she's good. Very studied, perhaps overly so imo.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I love Brendel's Haydn, so him being mentioned earlier in this thread lead me to seek out his Mozart. It sounds exactly like I expected it to, light, airy, whimsical, and lovely!


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Why do there have to be so many cycles of Mozart's Sonatas that I enjoy? I want to own them all, and I will collect them one by one!

Krauss
Gould
Barenboim
Brendel
Horowitz (I know he didn't do a full cycle, but he's done quite a few of them, right?)


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