Mozart: Piano Sonatas n. 13 - 18

Decca releases the third album (2-CD) dedicated to Mozart's Piano Sonatas, including the last six Sonatas (Nos. 13 - 18). WIth this release, Roberto Prosseda completes his 3-year project of recording Mozart's 18 Piano Sonatas. The CDs have been recorded at Fazioli Concert Hall, on a F 278 Fazioli grand piano, tuned with the Vallotti unequal temperament. 

In this recording - Roberto Prosseda says - I wanted to deliver the indications of articulation and dynamics in a very radical manner, breaking with a particular performance tradition based on smooth phrasing and the achievement of a “lovely sound” as an end in itself. In contrast, I tried to give a precise, dramatic meaning to every musical gesture in the score, further emphasising the points of dramatic tension by way of flexible notelengths. In line with this standpoint, there has been no compression of the sound, so the strong dynamic jolts that Mozart wanted remain intact, and are a characteristic of my interpretation. The use of the sustaining pedal has also been limited to those instances where I wanted to create a strongly defined “register”, with the intention of getting close to the sound of the fortepianos that Mozart wrote these sonatas on. From this point of view, I calibrated the use of the soft pedal to obtain the greatest difference in timbre, to thin the sound down while maintaining absolute transparency even in pianissimos. Respecting the practice of the time, repeats are often played with improvised decorations. At some pauses before the recapitulations I have inserted brief improvised cadenzas consistent with the examples Mozart himself wrote at similar points. Mozart’s piano sonatas, and these final six in particular, are an essential part of our civilisation’s heritage. The quantity and variety of expressive styles, the profound introspection, the dramatic power that Mozart achieves here have been for me a continual voyage of discovery, a source of constant enrichment. I hope that the enthusiasm that this music unleashed in me during the recording sessions can also reach the listener with the same intensity and joy that it gave me in performance.

CD 1

SONATA NO. 13 K 333 in B flat major
1 I Allegro 
2 II Andante cantabile  
3 III Allegretto grazioso  

4 FANTASIA K 475 in C minor  

SONATA NO. 14 K 457 in C minor
5 I Molto Allegro  
6 II Adagio  
7 III Allegro assai  

SONATA NO. 15 K 533 / 494 in F major
8 I Allegro  
9 II Andante  
10 III Allegretto 


CD 2


SONATA NO. 16 K 545 in C major
1 I Allegro 
2 II Andante  
3 III Rondò – Allegretto

  
SONATA NO. 17 K 570 in B flat major
4 I Allegro  
5 II Adagio  
6 III Allegretto  

SONATA NO 18 K 576 in D major
7 I Allegro  
8 II Adagio  
9 III Allegretto  

10 SONATENSATZ K 312 (K⁶ 590d) in G minor