Mozart: Sonata for Piano duet in F major, K497

“Yaara Tal and Andreas Groethuysen live and breathe as one on these two wonderful discs in which every performance emerges not merely as 'the best' (if we're talking critical comparisons) but life-affirming. Technically, each fiddly ornament, every phrase shape and every degree of pedalling is miraculously co-ordinated – not that one is ever made aware of such prosaic elements for the music simply flows, newly minted, in joyous, stylish effusion. Here are Wolfgang and Nannerl having a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon, smiling and winking to each other as they negotiate some of the more mischievous twists and turns.
The final movement of the B flat Sonata, K358, has rarely bubbled along like this, while the F major Sonata, K497, confirms its place as a masterpiece with its passages of eerie Schubertian prescience. The playing of this duo marks a clear if subtle distinction between one that comes together occasionally for festivals and recordings, and one that does it every day as a vocation.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Yaara Tal and Andreas Groethuysen live and breathe as one on these two wonderful discs in which every performance emerges not merely as "the best" (if we're talking critical comparisons) but life-affirming. The final movement of the B flat Sonata, K358, has rarely bubbled along like this, while the F major Sonata, K497, confirms its place as a masterpiece with its passages of eerie Schubertian prescience.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2006

These classic recordings, originally released on LPs by Musical Heritage Society, and brought to CD for the first time, bring together two of the leading Mozart pianists of their generation–Nadia Reisenberg and Artur Balsam. Reisenberg was born in Russia, studying there with Leonid Nicolaieff (the teacher of Shostakovich, among many other leading Russian pianists). In the USA, Ms. Reisenberg studied with the legendary Josef Hoffman, at the Curtis Institute. Among Ms. Reisenberg's outstanding achievements, was the performance of all 27 Piano Concertos of Mozart. Ms. Reisenberg taught at Curtis, NYU, USC, and the Jerusalem Academy. Artur Balsam was born in Poland, and won the First Prize in the Berlin Competition of 1930, and the Mendelssohn Prize in Berlin in 1931. Balsam recorded hundreds of works of both the solo and chamber repertoire, including all of Mozart's solo music, and recorded Sonatas with Nathan Milstein, Zino Francescatti, Joseph Fuchs and Zara Nelsova, among many others.