Mozart: Variations (6) in F on an Allegretto, K54

At the age of ten Zhu Xiao-Mei entered the Peking Conservatory where her brilliant studies were interrupted by the years of the Cultural Revolution. She was sent to a re-education camp on the border of Inner Mongolia for five years. On returning to Peking, she completed her studies and left China as soon as the regime gave its first signs of opening to the outside world. In 1980 she emigrated to the United States, settling in Paris in 1984. Zhu Ziao-Mei gives few concerts, appearing in public usually to perform demanding works: ‘mountains of the soul’.

Brilliance, fluency, clarity and extraordinary communicative powers – Mozart seems to have had them all. Little wonder he was hailed as the finest pianist of his generation – even rivals such as Clementi commented ‘I had never heard anyone play with so much spirit and grace…’ Of course we have no idea how Mozart the pianist sounded. We have the reviews and comments of those who heard him perform, and we have the instruments of his time. These do take us some way to understanding performance practice of the day, and the limitations of the instruments, and how composers of the late 18th century worked to test the instruments, and make greater demands upon the constantly evolving pianoforte.

On these 14 CDs, everything Mozart wrote for solo keyboard, or for 4-hands is here, from small works written down by his incredulous father Leopold when his son as just 5 years old, to the works of the child prodigy through to the masterpieces of the mature genius.

There is much that is well known here, but interestingly there are several first recordings. All the works are played on pianofortes of the period.

Extensive booklet notes on an accompanying CD-ROM.

Includes world premiere recordings.

First complete cycle using instruments of the period.

Van Oort plays on five different (copies of) period fortepianos to convey Mozart’s music as directly as possible without the necessary “translation” when playing a modern grand. This results in a great clarity of sound and structure.

Part of this issue represents an important addition to the Mozart repertoire. The Adagio in F major, K Anh. A65, the Modulation Prelude, K624 and the Ballet music from another opera, Ascanio in Alba, K111, are amongst the first recordings too.