Catalogue

Summary:

“His avowed aim in playing Mozart is to avoid the elegance and gracefulness of traditional performance-practice, and to bring out instead the music’s nervous energy.” – BBC Music Magazine

“Pienaar reveals Mozart’s sonatas in aural technicolour…In the earlier sonatas Pienaar finds a raw emotional authenticity of response…He delivers dazzling fingerwork aplenty in playing that’s fearsomely intelligent, articulate, insightful and, though very personal, so musically clued-in that it rings true to Mozart’s spirit.” – Classic FM

“One factor strikes immediately: there is not a whiff of bygone reverential, even obsequious attitudes to Mozart that still cast faint shadows among some pianists…But as his performance of the Alla turca Sonata, K331 shows, technique isn’t allowed to edge ahead of emotional and intellectual depth.” Editor’s Choice – Gramophone

“This Mozart…strikes me as one of the most completely satisfying surveys of this still undervalued music ever committed to disc…This is Mozart on the threshold of his genius; Pienaar responds with an astonishing range of expression and colour. I can think of no recent set that takes the music so honestly at face value.” CD of the week ★★★★★ – The Sunday Times

“… this gifted piano player can do everything. His Mozart is surprising, with inexhaustible energy. It really moves a lot! Each measure is dissected, phrased in the freest way possible, which reinvents each moment. And it goes quickly! The allegros are captured in mid-flight, immediately released into the air. It spins around all the time. Whimsical, with irresistible enthusiasm, this Mozart is invigorated, transcended by an impressive technique. The slow movements are full of momentum, never boring, Pienaar having preserved all the desired musicality in them. The most exhilarating complete” Rating: Superb ★★★★★ – The Musical Parnassus

South African-born, London resident Daniel-Ben Pienaar is a completist. Recent surveys, both on the concert platform and in the recording studio, include Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Chopin’s Complete Waltzes, Schubert’s Complete Sonatas, and the complete keyboard works by Orlando Gibbons. He arrives on Avie with another major project in tow: the complete Piano Sonatas by Mozart. An active recitalist and chamber musician, and professor at the Royal Academy of Music, Pienaar has a number of critically acclaimed independent releases under his belt, but this recording represents an uncommon synergy between artist, repertoire and production values. In Gramophone Award-winning producer Jonathan Freeman-Atwood, Pienaar found a special simpatico which he found “profoundly enabling”, resulting in a creative recording process specific in relation to the music in hand.

Pienaar presents the works chronologically over five CDs, illustrating Mozart’s compositional trajectory which represents all of the major stylistic and emotional shifts in his mature career, with the earliest dating from his twentieth year, through his Viennese period, and the final works which were written towards the end of his all too brief life.

Tracklist:

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791)
Piano Sonatas

CD 1 (57:50)

Piano Sonata No. 1 K279 in C Major (11:55)
1. I Allegro (4:31)
2. II Andante (4:24)
3. III Allegro (2:57)

Piano Sonata No. 2 K280 in F Major (12:51)
4. I Allegro assai (4:17)
5. II Adagio (5:49)
6. III Presto (2:44)

Piano Sonata No. 3 K281 in B Flat Major (11:22)
7. I Allegro (4:16)
8. II Andante amoroso (3:12)
9. III Rondeau: Allegro (3:52)

Piano Sonata No.4 K282 in E Flat Major (11:32)
10. I Adagio (4:20)
11. II Menuetto I – Menuetto II – Menuetto I (4:14)
12. III Allegro (2:57)

Sonata No. 5 K283 in G Major (10:10)
13. I Allegro (3:38)
14. II Andante (3:52)
15. III Presto (2:39)

CD 2 (65:46)

Piano Sonata No. 6 K284 ‘Dürnitz’ in D Major (24:00)
1. I Allegro (4:57)
2. II Rondeau en Polonaise: Andante (4:18)
3. III Thema; Variationen I – XII (14:44)

Piano Sonata No. 7 K309 in C Major (14:55)
4. I Allegro con spirito (3:53)
5. II Andante un poco Adagio (5:22)
6. III Rondeau: Allegretto grazioso (5:40)

Piano Sonata No. 8 K311 in D Major (13:54)
7. I Allegro con spirito (4:04)
8. II Andante con espressione (4:30)
9. III Rondeau: Allegro (5:20)

Piano Sonata No. 9 K310 in A Minor (12:55)
10. I Allegro maestoso (3:57)
11. II Andante cantabile con espressione (6:31)
12. III Presto (2:28)

CD 3 (74:05)

Piano Sonata No. 10 K330 in C Major (17:46)
1. I Allegro moderato (5:57)
2. II Andante cantabile (6:37)
3. III Allegretto (5:12)

Piano Sonata No. 11 K331 ‘Alla Turca’ in A Major (21:44)
4. I Andante grazioso (12:19)
5. II Menuetto & Trio (5:58)
6. III Alla Turca: Allegretto (3:27)

Piano Sonata No. 12 K332 in F Major (16:03)
7. I Allegro (6:54)
8. II Adagio (4:32)
9. III Allegro assai (4:37)

Piano Sonata No. 13 K333 in B Flat Major (18:29)
10. I Allegro (7:03)
11. II Andante cantabile (5:27)
12. III Allegretto grazioso (5:59)

CD 4 (49:48)

1. Fantasie K475 in C minor (11:00)

Piano Sonata No. 14 K457 in C Minor (17:04)
2. I Allegro (5:23)
3. II Adagio (7:42)
4. III Molto allegro (3:59)

Piano Sonata No. 15 K533/494 in F major (21:42)
5. I Allegro (6:32)
6. II Andante (9:19)
7. III Rondo: Allegretto (5:51)

CD 5 (40:49)

Piano Sonata No. 16 K545 ‘Für Änfänger’ in C Major (9:57)
1. I Allegro (2:44)
2. II Andante (5:33)
3. III Rondo: Allegretto (1:39)

Piano Sonata No. 17 K570 in B Flat Major (16:45)
4. I Allegro (5:47)
5. II Adagio (7:31)
6. III Allegretto (3:27)

Piano Sonata No. 18 K576 in D Major (14:05)
7. I Allegro (4:52)
8. II Adagio (5:02)
9. III Allegretto (4:11)

Daniel-Ben Pienaar, piano

Recorded at the Dukes Hall of the Royal Academy of Music in London, August 2008 and September 2009
Producer: Jonathan Freeman-Attwood
Engineer: Kirsten Cowie