Mozart: Piano Four Hands

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Beautifully poised ensemble playing which revels in the extraordinary inventiveness of the two great Piano Duet Sonatas, but understates their operatic gestures and moments of humour. — BBC Music Magazine, July 2014, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 5th May 2014
Catalogue No: AP078
Label: Aparté
Length: 58 minutes

Mozart: Andante and Variations in G for Piano Duet, K501

Work length7:31

$1.20

$1.95

$2.40

Ismaël Margain (soloist), Guillaume Bellom (soloist)

Mozart: Sonata for Piano duet in C major, K521

Work length23:40

$3.40

$5.20

$6.40

Ismaël Margain (soloist), Guillaume Bellom (soloist)

I. Allegro

Track length9:16

$1.20

$1.95

$2.40

II. Andante

Track length6:41

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

III. Allegretto

Track length7:43

$1.20

$1.95

$2.40

Mozart: Sonata for Piano duet in F major, K497

Work length27:43

$3.80

$5.85

$7.20

Ismaël Margain (soloist), Guillaume Bellom (soloist)

I. Adagio, allegro di molto

Track length9:22

$1.20

$1.95

$2.40

II. Andante

Track length10:25

$1.40

$1.95

$2.40

III. Allegro

Track length7:56

$1.20

$1.95

$2.40

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About

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the first to compose pieces for piano four hands. His father, Leopold, wrote in a letter of 9 July 1765: "In London Wolfgangerl wrote his first piece for four hands. Until that time no sonata for four hands had ever been composed."

The famous Salzburg family portrait painted by Johann Nepomuk della Croce in 1780-81 (Mozarteum, Salzburg) shows Wolfgang and his sister, Nannerl, playing a duet at the piano, with Leopold, violin in hand, looking on, and his wife, Anna Maria (d. 1778), included in a picture on the wall.

The three works presented here were composed in Vienna in 1786 and 1787, when the young virtuoso was about to give up his career as a pianist in order to concentrate on the composition of operas, having been stimulated by his meeting with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. In the summer of 1786 he composed what is probably the most ambitious and most significant of his four-hand pieces, the Sonata in F major (KV 497). It was first performed in Vienna on 4 November 1786, four months before the Andante and Variations in G major (KV 501). His last sonata for piano four hands, in C major, KV 521, was written in May 1787, when Mozart had reached his full maturity as a composer. It is characterised by the light key of C major and the virtuosity of its two fast movements (especially the first), bright and brilliant in their elegance.

Reviews

July 2014

Beautifully poised ensemble playing which revels in the extraordinary inventiveness of the two great Piano Duet Sonatas, but understates their operatic gestures and moments of humour.

April 2014

This recording is prime evidence of the musical synergy between these two young pianists, who clearly communicate the joy and vitality in this music. Balance is just about perfect, and everything from their crisp articulation and clean delivery to the unity of phrasing and dynamic control contributes to the seamless integration of their individual parts.

Mozart: Piano Four Hands

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