Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Walter Klien :: Mozart: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1

Splendid

David Saemann | 07/21/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I met George Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the founder of Vox Records, in 1978 or 9. He told me a story about having to depart from Vienna when a friend asked him to first hear three young pianists. The three were Alfred Brendel, Ingrid Haebler, and Walter Klien. Mendelssohn Bartholdy signed all three of them, and the rest is history. I mention this in connection with Walter Klien's Mozart because Mendelssohn Bartholdy had a knack for signing pianists with a superb technique. He did not believe in assembling a pianist's performance in the studio. Klien's Mozart is the epitome of this philosophy. Mozart's piano music may not sound hard, but to bring out all the voices at once while maintaining a rich tone is very hard indeed. Klien does this almost effortlessly. His playing is just as ennobling in the earlier sonatas as in the three famous ones on this album. I have complete sets of the sonatas by Deyanova, Gould, Krauss, and Uchida, plus individual CDs by Eschenbach, De Larrocha, Ciccolini, and Vladar. All of them are good (even if the Gould is somewhat perverse in its historicity), but Walter Klien is the equal of any of them. The sound engineering, from 1964, is slightly veiled but generally clear and full, and always agreeable. I have found in my collecting that Mozart's piano sonatas are endlessly fascinating, even more so than Beethoven's, and I think Walter Klien's performances are a wonderful stop on that journey."

At first, I took it for granted..

Smaug | Round Lake Beach, IL United States | 08/10/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"But when I heard other interpretations of Mozart piano sonatas, they just didn't seem "right". Sometimes, this happens when one gets used to one recording. That isn't the case here. I generally prefer de Laroccha & Brendel for the piano concerti, but I have not found anyone to play piano better than Klien did. The other reviewers have articulated it better than I can.



I bought this many years ago when it has a less trendy cover. I bought both volumes in two CD sets at a mall CD store. I hesitated because they were $18 for the two.



Do you know what makes these CDs even more enjoyable? Reading a book along with them. I'm reading 'Mozart: A Life in Letters' right now, which refers to his works by K #. Knowing the story behind these sonatas from Mozart's own day while hearing them... It is just unbelievable.



Maybe this will be more convincing. I am an atheist. When I first read the Leopold Mozart was parading his children around Europe because he thought it was his duty, because God had chosen to speak to us through Mozart, I scoffed. God-schmod. Maybe my imagination just isn't good enough, or I don't have enough faith or something. But when I listen to certain pieces by Mozart (several of which are in this collection) I *almost* believe that it is not possible for one person to have such talent, without help from a divine being. (but there IS no devine being!) So how is this possible?! Quality training from an early age, a musical heritage, and exposure to the best classical & baroque music that Europe had to offer certainly didn't hurt.



Everything is just perfect. The thing with Mozart is that as you listen to it again and again, it only gets more beautiful. I notice things I hadn't noticed before.



The solo piano sonatas of Mozart really do belong in every classical music collection.



I wish I could have met Mozart. He probably wouldn't have been too impressed by me, but Oh, to shake his hand, or to have a piano lesson from him."