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Five Notable Mozart Pianists · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:07
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
• 0:11
  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
• 0:15
  Please consider taking out a paid subscription
• 0:18
  to The Piano Maven, and you can find the link
• 0:22
  to do so in our episode description. My friend
• 0:26
  David Hurwitz has been doing a series of videos
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  on his YouTube channel where he talks about the
• 0:33
  five greatest conductors of Verity or the five
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  greatest Richard Strauss conductors or the five
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  greatest Liszt pianists and so on and so forth.
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  I thought of doing something similar, except
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  that... I'm rather averse to the idea of putting
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  together a list of five greatest, because that
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  implies that we have a closed shop, so to speak.
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  I would rather approach this kind of topic by
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  doing an episode about five notable players.
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  So I'm going to talk about five notable Mozart
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  pianists. And the five people I'll be talking
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  about... maybe were not specialists necessarily,
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  but they devoted much time and commitment to
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  playing a wide scope of the Mozart repertoire.
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  I guess that does make you a specialist. And
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  each of these five pianists approaches Mozart
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  in his or her own way. There are similarities,
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  but there are big differences too. The first
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  pianist I'm going to talk about is Lily Krauss.
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  I kind of imprinted on her recordings of the
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  complete Mozart concertos, and I heard the recordings
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  of the piano sonatas a little later on. She recorded
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  certain concertos on multiple occasions, and
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  she also was the pianist in recordings of the
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  violin sonatas and the piano trios, so she played
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  a lot of this repertoire. Lily Krauss always
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  approached Mozart with an angularity and toughness
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  and intensity that was completely opposite from
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  the prettified and rounded off way that Older
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  generations of pianists sometimes looked at Mozart,
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  the so -called Dresden China Doll School, if
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  you will. Lily Krauss was all about drama and
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  passion, but she also had an awareness of stylistic
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  concerns in terms of ornaments and articulations.
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  The problem with her 1960s recordings of the
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  Mozart concerto cycle is that the orchestra is
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  not quite up to her level. So if you're coming
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  to Lily Krauss in Mozart for the first time,
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  I would start with her early 1950s cycle of the
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  Mozart sonatas, and you will see a link to listen
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  in my episode description. Next is the pianist
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  Walter Gieseking on my list. It used to be received
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  opinion that his Mozart playing was of the Dresden
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  China doll approach, very placid, intentionless.
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  and pretty on the surface, but nothing more.
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  And a lot of people said that he was basically
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  sight -reading when he recorded the complete
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  Mozart solo piano works for the EMI label in
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  the early 1950s. I could not disagree with these
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  notions more, really. I don't... agree with that
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  received opinion. Now, to be sure, Gieseking
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  is not so emotionally demonstrative as Lily Crouse.
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  You sort of have to meet him halfway, whereas
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  Lily Crouse comes to you. Yet, the proportion
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  and the exquisite balances that Gieseking achieves
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  between the hands, and the purity of his phrasing,
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  and the utter clarity of his finger work, all
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  adds up to great inner strength. Now, some pieces
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  succeed more than others in Gieseking's performances,
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  but I would not underestimate him as a Mozart
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  player in his solo piano recordings. There are
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  also some excellent concerto performances of
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  Mozart with Gieseking from the studio, although
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  my personal favorite is this live recording of
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  the C major concerto, Kershaw 467, with Guido
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  Contelli conducting the New York Philharmonic.
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  And Gieseking is on red -hot form in this performance.
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  It's really quite something. And I've posted
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  a link to listen to that in our episode description.
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  We have to talk about Robert Levin, whose scholarship
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  and deep -rooted sense of style is fused with
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  his superior musical instincts. This is scholarship
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  without pedantry. And Robert Levin's recent recordings
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  of the Mozart sonatas for the ECM label on a
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  period instrument feature stimulating ornaments
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  and also appropriate improvisations when... fitting.
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  And you get a sense that Robert Levin has studied
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  these pieces as much as anyone can, yet he always
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  manages to sound fresh and improvisatory. I think
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  he gets into Mozart's head as well as into Mozart's
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  spirit. This is also true about Robert Levin's
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  recordings of the Mozart concertos, also on period
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  instruments. If you want similar scholarship
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  but on a modern concert grand piano, and if you
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  also want a singing, dancing, and speaking, and
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  three -dimensionally human Mozart. I would go
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  to Roberto Porceda's recordings of the complete
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  Mozart sonatas on the Decca label. These are
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  my recent reference versions, and I think they
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  are very special. And again, you'll see a link
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  to listen in the episode description. And the
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  last pianist on this list may surprise you. He's
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  a pianist of the older school that perhaps splits
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  the difference between Lily Krauss and Walter
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  Gieseking. He was devoted to Mozart throughout
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  his long life, and his interpretations always
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  combined wisdom and instinct with no effort at
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  all. And there was really no artifice to the
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  pianism or to the interpretations. It was just
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  naturalness personified. This is the pianist
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  Miroslav Horshavsky. Listen to those live recordings
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  of various concertos that he performed in New
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  York with Frederick Waldman and the Musica Eterna
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  Orchestra. Or listen to the live Mozart Sonata
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  Cycle. These recordings all were rescued by my
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  late friend Alan Evans and reissued by him on
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  the Pearl label and then later on his own Arbiter
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  label. Miroslav Hurshovsky, what a special Mozart
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  player he was. Now, I know that pianists like
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  Rudolf Serkin, Peter Serkin, Murray Pariah, Richard
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  Goode, Andras Schiff, Maria João Pires, Rudolf
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  Buchbinder, Orly Shaham, Alfred Brendel, Alicia
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  de la Rocha, and Immanuel Axe all belong on any
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  self -respecting list of great Mozart interpreters.
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  And so do Arthur Schnabel and Edwin Fischer.
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  How could I have forgotten about them? But the
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  five people that I discussed earlier in this
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  episode represent divergent yet... equally valid
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  approaches, and their recordings might make a
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  good starting point for those who want to dive
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  into this literature. This is Jed Disler, and
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  you've been listening to The Piano Maven, your
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  friendly podcast guide to piano recordings, and
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  I look forward to being with you for our next
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  episode.