Mozart: Fantasia (Prelude) & Fugue in C major, K394

On volume four of his widely acclaimed traversal of Mozart's music for solo keyboard, fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout performs on an instrument by Paul McNulty, modeled on a Viennese original by Anton Walter & Sohn (c.1805). The program includes Piano Sonatas in D major K.311 and G major K.283 and the lovely Variations on 'Je suis Lindor' in E flat Major, K.354. As with the other volumes in this exceptional series, Bezuidenhout brings out colors and shadings in these works that are only possible when performed on a fortepiano.

The Canadian musician Glenn Gould was undoubtedly one of the greatest pianists of all time. To mark the 75th anniversary of his birth, and the 25th anniversary of his death, Sony BMG Masterworks presents this seminal artist’s vinyl recordings as re-mastered CDs, designed to replicate the exact artwork of the original gramophone records in miniaturised form. Already issued as part of an 80-CD box set (88697130942), these albums are now being made available individually, with the first 20 in the series being released in November 2007.

Built in 1777, the Stein ‘Vis-à-vis’ is a glorious monster, half harpsichord, half fortepiano, with keyboards at both ends and a tonal range unsurpassed in the century that saw plectra cede to hammers. Brilliantly percussive, it is a veritable fun-fair for four hands.

"2006 will surely be full of celebratory concerts and recordings dedicated to a man born 250 years ago… The recital on this disc includes Mozart's structurally more 'free' music for piano: Rondos, Fantasies, and Preludes. He inherited these forms from Johann Sebastian Bach and, perhaps more importantly, through his sons Carl Philipp and Johann Christian.

The brooding opening of the great Fantasie in D minor, K397, gives way to a more light-hearted air. This piece has acquired a nineteenth-century editorial ending with no Mozartian provenance - the manuscript is incomplete. I offer an

'egarrtorial' option for the close of this little gem. Mozart originally intended the Fantasie in C minor, K396, to include a part for violin. Too little of this survives to make an adequate reconstruction. However, Abbé Maximilian Stadler (a close friend of Mozart, and a fine and interesting musician in his own right) made an admirable completion of this work for piano solo.

Although the second part gives way to fantasy of perhaps a more Schubertian nature, it is an extremely fine working of Mozart's material. The more structured pieces on the disc - the Rondos, Adagios, Marches, Minuett, and Gigue - demonstrate no less imagination and depth of character.

I end the programme with the Adagio in C major, K356, originally written for the Glass harmonika. I believe that using a fine original early piano can help us discover a multitude of colours in his music and bring us into Mozart's sound-world. I am very thankful he is still in our world at 250. Happy birthday!" Richard Egarr

The fifth volume in this much admired series offers another fascinating anthology. Of the 17 pianists, the two oldest are the long-lived Cornelia Rider-Possart (1865-1963) who can be heard on an exceptionally rare, non-commercial 1926 Berlin disc, in the first recording of Scriabin’s Etude, Op. 42, No. 3, and Etelka Freund (1879-1977), a pupil of Brahms, who performs one of his Intermezzos in 1952. Jean Melville, a distant relation of Arthur Sullivan, plays Valse arabesque in London in 1923, whilst Johana Harris who, together with her husband, the American composer Roy Harris, enjoyed a highly successful career, can be heard playing Frescobaldi in Los Angeles.

Marina A. Ledin & Victor Ledin, producers