performed by Mitsuko Uchida second and third movements (cover image by Lex Sirikiat) You like forensics, don’t you, dear reader? After shows like CSI and others, as well as what seems (at least to me) to be the growing fad of … Continue reading Mozart Piano Sonata no. 13 in B flat, K. 333
performed by Mitsuko Uchida (cover image by Vincent Giersch) This is a piece that has captivated me, and although it may not be, like the finale of the previous sonata, one of those immediately recognizable, iconic passages, it exudes such … Continue reading Mozart Piano Sonata no. 12 in F, K. 332
performed by Mitsuko Uchida second and third movements (cover image by Joanna Kosinska) Mozart’s eleventh piano sonata was composed somewhere, at some point. It’s not often that we don’t have all the juicy details about the composition of Mozart’s efforts … Continue reading Mozart Piano Sonata no. 11 in A, K. 331
performed by Mitsuko Uchida, or below by Krystian Zimerman (cover image by Tim Mossholder) As if we didn’t have enough Mozart last year, with week after week of his music, we’re going to see his name yet a few more … Continue reading Mozart Piano Sonata no. 10 in C, K. 330
performed by Dame Mitsuko Uchida second and third movements One gets the feeling, listening to the Sonata in A minor, that Mozart had been stocking up on minor mode drama for some time when he wrote it. Its stormy music is a … Continue reading Mozart Piano Sonata no. 8 in Am, K. 310
performed by Fazıl Say, or below by Dame Mitsuko Uchida (cover image by Chris Barbalis) Mozart’s seventh piano sonata dates from 1777, a full two and a half years after the sixth. It was composed during a trip to Mannheim and … Continue reading Mozart Piano Sonata no. 7 in C, K. 309
performed by Dame Mitsuko Uchida and the English Chamber Orchestra under Sir Jeffrey Tate (cover image by Leonard Cotte) Mozart’s ninth piano concerto is actually his fifth original concerto for the piano (after the first four, which were more or … Continue reading Mozart Piano Concerto no. 9 in E-flat, K. 271, ‘Jenamy’
Performed by Maurizio Pollini and the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado, or below by Mitsuko Uchida and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto, with an opus number of 58, dates from the time of … Continue reading Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 4 in G, op. 58
performed by Mitsuko Uchida and the Cleveland orchestra under Pierre Boulez Finally! It’s here. I’ve been eager to write this article now for years. It was a strange experience I had with this work, as I was describing to someone the … Continue reading Schoenberg Piano Concerto, op. 42
performed by Mitsuko Uchida We’ll get around to the other incomplete sonatas and stuff later, but for now, we feature the first piano work of his that really blew me away, and the earliest completed sonata. I was fascinated with his Wanderer … Continue reading Schubert Piano Sonata no. 4 in C, D. 537
performed by Mitsuko Uchida and the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, or below by Argerich/Chailly/Gewandhaus The idea of inspiration is an interesting one. This is the first husband-and-wife couple we’ve featured on the blog, as I mentioned yesterday with … Continue reading Schumann Piano Concerto in Am, op. 54
performed by Mitsuko Uchida second movement third movement or also this very interesting performance of the first movement by Robert Levin on an actual fortepiano, similar to what Mozart would have played on This third of Mozart’s piano sonatas is … Continue reading Mozart Piano sonata no. 3 in Bb, K281
performed by Mitsuko Uchida second movement third movement As with many of the pieces we have discussed in rapid succession, this piece was written soon after yesterday’s sonata. Do remember the statement we made about the clump of the first four piano concertos: with such little space between them, and from such a young composer, I wouldn’t expect to see any large degree of development or advancement from one piece to another. What I do feel like I see, as mentioned with the juvenile orchestrations, is greater confidence. The young Mozart is, perhaps, getting his sea legs, as it were. … Continue reading Mozart Piano sonata no. 2 in F, KV280
performed by Mitsuko Uchida second movement third movement No more concertos for now. Move ahead another year, and our dear composer is now 18 years old. He’d have graduated high school by this time if that’d been a thing, and he finally got around to writing his first full piano sonata. I’m interested as to why it isn’t until now that his first completed piano sonata is composed. That being said, he’d written tons of smaller things in his youth, but his first completed three-movement work for solo piano comes some time after his first opera or concerto or … Continue reading Mozart Piano sonata no. 1 in C, K279
performed by the English Chamber Orchestra under Jeffrey Tate, Mitsuko Uchida, piano Finally something original. So it’s been 24 hours since our last Mozart concerto, and a few years since our little composer put his pen to paper for another concerto. This one, however, is original. I’ll make mention that I’m not including the three unnumbered concerti orchestrated from sonatas of J.S. Bach, mostly because they’re not numbered and because I didn’t know they existed (because they aren’t included in any of the box sets I’ve been browsing), mostly the latter. I might get around to them eventually, but then … Continue reading Mozart Piano Concerto no. 5 in D, K175
This week, as you may have seen from yesterday’s post, is going to be a miniature Beethoven week. Actually, I don’t know what’s miniature about it; Beethoven certainly isn’t, and it’s a full seven-day week like any other. Beethoven week. … Continue reading Uchida on Beethoven, Schubert and Vienna
a discussion with the wonderful Mitsuko Uchida This woman is just kind of a musical goddess. Not only do I love everything I’ve heard her play, from Schubert to Schoenberg, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything I’ve ever seen on YouTube of … Continue reading On Talent: Is it Enough?
Fugue for Thought 