Mozart: Complete Variations and Other Works for Solo Piano featuring the great Viennese pianist
Walter Klien is a three-CD Musical Concepts reissue of a coveted pair of VoxBox LP sets that originally appeared in 1967. The rather colorlessly named Musical Concepts imprint seems in some way related to Vox, and this set is listed on Vox's website, though it bears no logos or markings familiar from the august New York-based cheapie. Several claims are made about the set that do not hold up to AMG's all-penetrating scrutiny. It's in the title that the Complete Variation (sets) for piano are represented here, but we seem to be missing the Andantino in E flat major, K. 236, which is a variation set in every way, excepting in its title. One cannot go back to the 1960s and persuade
Klien to add that one. However, Mozart: Complete Variations and Other Works for Solo Piano isn't quite "complete" in comparison to the original LP sets, as Musical Concepts decided to leave off K. 1-5 and 9a, tiny pieces from the very beginning of
Mozart's career, any one of which would have taken these discs over the 80-minute limit. Another claim, which does not pass muster, is that "these recordings are presented here on CD for the first time." Roughly half of them have so appeared, some on a very early Vox Turnabout CD from about 1984 and several as filler on a late VoxBox set, Walter Klien Plays Mozart, padding out three of his best-known
Mozart concerto recordings.
Nonetheless, however vacuous of thought the packaging or programming might appear, there are many reasons why this particular set remains quite desirable.
Walter Klien is particularly outstanding in stuff like this; for him, no
Mozart was without consequence, and he approached every note of this music with care and inclined toward a lucid, yet relaxed and no-nonsense approach.
Klien is in his absolute best when there's a challenge afoot, as in the Eine kleine gigue in G, K. 574, or the fragmentary Klaviersuite in G, K. 399, from the "
Bach year" of 1782. But even in relatively unchallenging works, such as a handful featured here with "K." numbers lower than 100 and therefore composed before 1771 (when
Mozart turned 15),
Klien imbues them with a sense of dignity and occasion, even if the music is not particularly distinguished. These recordings were made at various times between 1964 and 1967, and when a piano or microphone setup changes between tracks, you notice, but over time, you get used to it. Obviously Mozart: Complete Variations and Other Works for Solo Piano would make a very nice gift, even for a listener with a non-expert appreciation of
Mozart, but the front cover is even more Spartan looking than the norm for Vox, consisting of a flower that could've been taken from shareware computer clip art. However, once the CD goes into the changer, any offense the present may have made through its cheapness in appearance should melt away once
Klien's magisterial art is made manifest in one's speakers.