Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 18 in D major, K576 'Hunt'

Mozart Sonata recording made in the early 1980s by Karl Engel. Release to follow soon: Complete Mozart Piano Concertos.

Swiss pianist Karl Engel was a student of Paul Baumgartner at the Basel Conservatory from 1942 to 1945. After World War II he studied with Alfred Cortot at the École Normale de Musique in Paris in 1947-1948. He toured internationally as a soloist with orchestras, a recitalist and as a chamber music performer. He became particularly known for his complete cycles of Mozart piano sonatas and concertos, and Beethoven piano sonatas. He also distinguished himself as an accompanist, often appearing in Lieder recitals with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hermann Prey, Peter Schreier and Brigitte Fassbaender.

Among his chamber music partners were Pablo Casals, Yehudi Menuhin as well as the Melos Quartet.

From 1958 to 1986 Karl Engel was Professor of piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover, Germany. He gave famous master-classes in France, Canada and Portugal.

The great British piano virtuoso Solomon Cutner (known professionally by his first name alone) was born in the East End of London in 1902. He was best known for his performances of the music of Beethoven, of which there are many examples in this 7 CD set. In 1956, whilst in the process of recording the complete Beethoven sonatas for EMI, he experienced a massive stroke which rendered him inactive as a professional musician for the rest of his life. He died in 1988, aged 85 years.

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.