Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K545 'Facile'

"The sonatas are private preliminary conversations leading to the operas. Everything that is here returns later on in expanded form" (Friedrich Gulda)

“Friedrich Gulda made a series of Mozart sonata recordings shortly before playing all the sonatas in three cycles of concerts during February 1981. They remained unissued during the pianist's lifetime and survived only on cassette dubs from the presumably lost mastertapes. Their first CD appearance adds up to an absorbing listening experience, once you get past the inevitable hiss plus patches of flutter and signal overload.
The close microphone placement shrouds Gulda's Bösendorfer with a harpsichord-like patina that also evokes the fuzzy ping of a vintage Wurlitzer electric piano, yet the pianist's wide dynamic range and hard-hitting accents are anything but emasculating. Indeed, Gulda's Mozart positively rocks, because it's mostly about rhythm. It's not about Gieseking's rippled symmetry, Schiff's ornaments (although Gulda's no slouch in this department), Krauss's angular harmonic stresses or Arrau's operas in miniature.
Gulda's unswerving, atomically steady tempi and occasionally downbeat-oriented phrasing never sound mechanical, for two reasons.
One, his inner rhythm always conveys a sense of swing in that it's firmly grounded yet forward moving. Two, Gulda's left hand is his trump card. Listen anywhere, really, and notice how much variety the pianist gleans from the composer's endless Alberti basses, how he brings out important melodic elements within the figurations, or how he gets the most dramatic (as opposed to merely theatrical) mileage out of signpost bass octaves without a trace of contrivance or Gouldian exaggeration.
At long last, we have Mozart piano sonata slow movements that you can slow-dance to, if that's your desire. More and more details rise to the surface with each rehearing, although it's best to absorb Gulda's Mozart in small doses – just one or two sonatas at a time. A stimulating release.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Gulda's unswerving, atomically steady tempi and occasionally downbeat-orientated phrased never sound mechanical, for two reasons. One, his inner rhythm always conveys a sense of swing in that it's firmly grounded yet forward moving. Two, Gulda's left hand is his trump card. Listen anywhere, really, and notice how much variety the pianist gleans from the composer's endless Alberti basses, how he brings out important melodic elements within the figurations, or how he gets the most dramatic (as opposed to merely theatrical) mileage out of signpost bass octaves without a trace of contrivance or Gouldian exaggeration. At long last, we have Mozart piano sonata slow movements that you can slow-dance to, if that's your desire. More and more details rise to the surface with each rehearing.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2006