Mozart: Rondo in A minor, K511

“This is Mozart rethought, unsanitised and maybe unsettling for some. But as Bezuidenhout implies, we have to move on.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2011

“Bezuidenhout promises great things, and this instalment is superb. The keyboard is perfectly scaled to the music: Bezuidenhout can give the C minor sonata (K457) full force and weight without ever sounding overblown, while the exquisite A minor rondo and B minor adagio have a gentle, unforced eloquence.” The Observer, 16th January 2011

“Any inbuilt resistance to hearing Mozart on a fortepiano rather than a concert grand quickly evaporates as the ear begins to relish the piquant colours and subtle nuances that Bezuidenhout produces...The best of it (K511, 540 and 457) sounds revolutionary while the rest cannot fail to charm.” Classic FM Magazine, February 2011 *****

“Bezuidenhout steers a wonderful, measured course through both works [Rondo and Adagio], but allows himself a bit of freedom in the two sonatas...Both are perfectly proportioned accounts, with every rhythm neatly sprung, and inflected with a splendid range of keyboard touch and colour.” The Guardian, 20th January 2011 ****

“There is nothing to fault in the playing, with Bezuidenhout displaying immaculate control of the refinements of tone of a fabulous fortepiano...This is Mozart playing of such intimacy and tenderness, on an instrument able to respond with similar subtlety and nuance” International Record Review, January 2011

“Throughout, Bezuidenhout transcends the apparent limitations of his instrument — a modern copy of a Walter fortepiano — with a remarkable range of colour.” Sunday Times, 30th January 2011 ****

“deeply-felt performances of some of the very greatest among the solo keyboard works...these performances leave a strong impression. Among the highlights is Bezuidenhout's expressive account of the tragic A minor Rondo K511. Elsewhere, Bezuidenhout is unfailingly imaginative with his own ornamentation. The reproduction Anton Walter pianos he uses are warm and sonorous.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2011 ****

“There have been a few recordings on historical instruments made in recent decades, but Bezuidenhout rivals them all for the breadth of understanding he brings to the music, and his astonishing inflections of colour. He is able to make the fortepiano really sing – such an important aspect of Mozart’s music...this is shaping up to be a truly great cycle that does Mozart’s solo piano music the fullest justice.” bbc.co.uk, 12th April 2011

“A Mozart programme such as this, which includes two of the greatest sonatas and the A minor Rondo, leaves absolutely no margin for error or insufficiency, nor indeed for anything at all approximate or generalised. It's given to very few to play Mozart as well as Richard Goode, who seems to pitch the rhetoric just right and sustain an ideal balance of strength and refinement.
It's quite big playing, and the range of sonority is appropriate to the A minor Sonata, K310, in particular; no other recent recording realises so well the sharp contrasts, the cross-cut abutments of dynamics, which are such a striking feature in all three movements. Goode has a characteristic touch of urgency that has nothing to do with impetuosity or agitation of the surface, but rather with carrying the discourse forward and making us curious about what will happen next. In the presto finale, where Brendel is choppy and rather slow, Goode is exciting and articulate, wonderfully adept at getting from one thing to another.
There's little to choose between these players in the composite F major Sonata, K533. Brendel is at his finest in the dark, far-reaching middle movement; both of them relish the challenge of characterising the multifariousness of the first; Goode is especially convincing in the last movement.
He gives you the overview, too, often powerfully.
While admiring the flux of intensities, dynamics, shapes and colours he sets before you in the Rondo, you might wonder three-quarters of the way through whether the totality was going to achieve enough weight. But the coda is to come – passionate and desolate, a close without parallel in Mozart's instrumental music – and at moments such as this you can be assured that Goode will surprise and certainly not disappoint.
The shorter pieces, enterprisingly chosen, set off the great works admirably. Exceptional sound throughout – like the playing, quite out of the ordinary run.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Goode gives a powerful and intense performance of the A minor Sonata, though one might feel that his tempo for the first movement is on the swift side for Mozart's 'maestoso' marking. …without doubt, this new disc gives a great deal of pleasure.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2005 ****

“Shikimori is a strong and sensitive player, excellently so in Brahms's F minor Sonata, and dazzlingly accurate in Ravel's La valse.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2013 ****