This disc of Mozart keyboard sonatas performed by German-born pianist
Michael Endres is extracted from a complete set the pianist issued; the works are billed as his "favourite piano sonatas," but in his interior notes he admits that they were simply "chosen to demonstrate the whole range of these highly individual works." In this they succeed. The program shows five different aspects of Mozart's keyboard output: the early Sonata in F major, K. 280, with its exploitation of the new textures afforded by the fortepiano; the quasi-orchestral Sonata in F major, K. 332, which contains an unmistakable reference to the "Mannheim rocket" figure associated with Mannheim's famous court orchestra; the Beethovenian Sonata in C minor, K. 457; the "easy" Sonata in C major, K. 545; and the late Sonata in D major, K. 576, with its effortless integration of counterpoint into transparent Classical textures.
Endres is a precise and technically highly gifted artist. In sections where Mozart explores and exploits a specific textural contrast -- the first movement of K. 280, for instance, or the first movement of K. 576, where the hunting-horn call at the beginning keeps getting encroached upon by contrapuntal complexities -- he is superb.
Endres offers perhaps the very best performance on recordings of the "Sonata facile," K. 545. Played singly, the thematic materials of this piece reveal absolutely no reason they should be so bewitching; it's all a matter of perfect balance between its elements, and in
Endres' hands the scales are perfectly calibrated. In slow movements he is not so superb; he isn't a very lyrical player, and the big Adagio of the C minor sonata drags a bit, its highly expressive A flat major strain lacking the desired impact. And his sforzandos may be too strong, and his pedaling too lush, for listeners who like a sparer Mozart. Still, especially considering the trademark audiophile sound of the Oehms label, the buyer seeking a single disc of Mozart sonatas played on a modern piano would do well to try this one out.