Search - Friedrich Gulda, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart :: Mozart: Klaviersonaten KV 570 & KV 576

Mozart's late piano sonatas in utter freshness and grace.

Abel | Hong Kong | 02/02/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One would indeed be more than surprised to learn from Friedrich Gulda's biography that he was sort of a 'rebel' to the classical music world.

Well, his interpretation of these late Mozart piano works left no trace whatsoever of rebellion, or any slight lack of authenticity in terms of interpretation.

What Gulda added was a truly virtuoso touch that had seldom been accorded to Mozart's sonatas. The attacks are absolutely clean, and the articulations crystal clear. Yet, there was never one single jarring note or ill-shaped phrase - no, all the passages are wonderfully elegant and full of beautiful dynamic contrasts that few pianists ever dared to explore, and it is perhaps this aspect that singles Friedrich Gulda out as a changeling among classical pianists.

Changeling or no changeling, Gulda's Mozart is nonetheless among the best of the best. He possessed a wonderful sense of rhythm that few pianists can rival. He never ever had to deploy excessive rubato to enhance the mood of a passage, since his phrasing, even on strictest tempi, was totally expressive and dynamic. In this sense, he actually was able to play these pieces almost 'by the book' and bringing forth an unsurpassable pedegree of Autro-Viennesse style of keyboard performance that almost none are capable of today.

Gulda was also able to muster multiple tone colours in these pieces that no pianist before had been able to. Just listen to the almost 'placidly' paced 2nd movement of the K570 sonata. Gulda used diverse tone colours to vary the musical phrases without having ever to resort to rubato. When you would just start to think 'what a middle-of-the-road approach', he would startle you with an entire shower of dynamics that you have never thought to exist in Mozart's works. Every nuance among repeated notes, every musical gesture embedded in Mozart's score was not to be missed under the hands of Gulda.

The 'pre-Beethoven' Fantasia K475 in Gulda's hands virtually blew his listeners away with his powerful dynamics that hitherto reserved by nearly every famed pianist for Beethoven's minor key piano works. Wilhelm Kempff's own version did not fare any better by comparison to Gulda's deeply sonorous and ominous reading (5:08 onwards; 8:45 onwards). A comparison with which all other versions pale off. A truly heart-rending performance!

Mozart's last sonata K576 in D Major (how he showered this key with his talent)was a true masterpiece in the hands of Friedrich Gulda. The treatment of the subject in the opening movement is a truly exemplary demonstration of what fine pianism that should be made available to Mozart's piano sonatas. The second movement is full of pearly delicate touches that characterises Mozart.

Then the mightily humourous third movement of K576 so easily driven into quasi-silliness by its almost child-like first subject. Gulda employed all the childlike directness in his approach, yet with a beautiful array of virtuosic display of multi-layered fireworks from the exposition through the transition well into the development section, sailing triumphantly through Mozart's sly modulations that are almost tricky to the inexperienced interpretor. In short, this is Mozart like no other would and could.







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