Search - Richard Fuller, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart :: Klavierwerke I

Mozart Sonatas on Fortepiano

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 08/14/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I was not particularly prepared to like this release, largely because I seem to have a blind (deaf?) spot regarding the sound of the instrument involved, the fortepiano. Too often, for me, the sound of the fortepiano sounds perilously close to that of a toy piano tinkling away when what I'd prefer is the strong sound of the modern pianoforte. Still, listening to this CD I was charmed by the sound which is actually quite appealing without being quaint. That is to say, there is strength to the tone even though one would never mistake it for that of a modern Steinway.



But more important is the playing of Richard Fuller. Fuller is an American fortepianist and clavichordist who specializes in the music of the Viennese Classical and early Romantic periods. He ably demonstrates the wide range of expression and dynamic of the fortepiano, adding discreet ornaments and lightly elaborated cadences as presumably Mozart himself or other late 18th-century instrumentalists would have done. The result of both his approach and the sound of the instrument is that these sonatas which, in the words of Anthony Newman, are 'miniaturized' when played on a modern grand piano, emerge as subtle but strong works. Even the first sonata -- the ever-familiar Sonata in C, K.545 -- is heard as the potent work it truly is, not the miniature as performed by beginning piano students. The performances of the four sonatas, plus the fine Fantasy in D Minor -- one of Mozart's towering keyboard works -- are both light and intense. Don't ask me how Fuller manages that seeming contradiction.



This recording was originally made in 1988 and released on an obscure German label. It and two subsequent Fuller Mozart Klavierwerk CDs were remastered and re-released by Palatine Records in 2001. It's worth hearing.



Scott Morrison"