Mozart: Minuet in D major, K355

"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

Continuing MDG’s successful survey of Mozart’s Complete Piano Works performed on fortepiano.

There is something special about the works of Mozart’s last years. Purified of all excesses, these subtle, delicate works, full of nostalgia, seem to belong to an otherworldly realm. After a period of unprecedented formal development in the mid 1780s, Mozart unexpectedly adopted a leaner, more conservative direction in his compositional style towards the end of the decade, willfully avoiding the dramatic flair and grandeur that characterized the compositions of the preceding years. In fact the very restraint of these late works is what seems to give them their almost heart-breaking poignancy.

With this CD, Ludwig Sémerjian continues his project of recording the complete Mozart sonatas on period instruments. Here he plays on an 1804 pianoforte made by Nannette Streicher, née Stein. Its pure, light timbre perfectly matches the subtle and refined mood of Mozart's last works for piano.