Volume 29 Issue 2 | October & November 2023

for violin and theorbo by Italian, Austrian
and German composers Mealli, Schmelzer,
Caccini, Biber, Böddecker and Castaldi,
an elusive repertoire that remains relatively
unknown to the wider audiences and
brings vigour and bloom to what might be
considered somewhat predictable in the
realm of historical performances. Krause and
her partner in crime, theorbo virtuoso John
Lenti, are just fabulous, their performance
is nothing short of beautiful. Krause has a
way of bringing the most interesting, almost
visceral textures out of her Baroque violin.
Her ornamentations are lovely and complemented
well by Lenti’s strong presence.
Although passionate and meaningful, this
music is unpretentious. Krause and Lenti
tell stories, visit mountain peaks and valleys,
drink from the lakes and creeks, dance in
town squares, all the while balancing virtuosity
and tranquility. The music glows and
grows throughout the album, reaching for
hidden nooks and corners, filling our ears
with delight.
Ivana Popovic
Mozart and the Organ
Anders Eidsten Dahl; Arvid Engegård; Atle
Sponberg; Embrik Snerte
LAWO Classics (lawo.no)
! When one thinks
of Mozart, the
mind can go many
places, from opera
to overture, sonata
to symphony. One
area of music with
which Mozart is
not often associated,
however, is organ music. By all accounts,
Mozart was a fine player who enjoyed the
sounds of the instrument – going so far as to
title it “The King of Instruments” – but the
organ was not a vehicle for concertizing in
Mozart’s time, instead used almost exclusively
in church services.
What Mozart did write for organ falls
into two categories: the first is the collection
of 17 “Epistle” sonatas, chamber music
written between 1772 and 1780 for masses in
Salzburg, played between the reading of texts;
the second is music that Mozart wrote for
the “Flotenuhr” – a large grandfather clock
containing a self-playing organ. There are two
large-scale works from this latter category
that are played quite frequently today, the
Adagio and Allegro in F Minor K594 and the
magnificently monumental Fantasia in F
Minor K608.
Organist Anders Eidsten Dahl gives a
tremendous overview of this music in Mozart
and the Organ, which includes 14 of the 17
church sonatas and both K594 and K608.
Recorded in the Swedish Church in Oslo,
Norway featuring violinists Arvid Engegård
and Atle Sponberg and bassoonist Embrik
Snerte, each of the sonatas is a little gem
containing its own delightful character
and range of expression, compressed into
a miniature form. The larger organ works
are wonderfully paced and expertly interpreted,
and Dahl makes Mozart’s challenging
writing sound effortless and clear, especially
in perilous passages where rapid and
constant movement make great demands of
the performer.
Mozart and the Organ is highly recommended
to all who appreciate Mozart and
organ music, whether together or separately.
These works are masterpieces and well worth
hearing, whether for the first time or the
hundredth.
Matthew Whitfield
Mozart – Complete Piano Sonatas Vol.4
Orli Shaham
Canary Classics CC23 (canaryclassics.com)
! Violinist Gil
is not the only
Shaham who is
making waves
wherever classical
music is adored. His
younger sister Orli
has been showing
the world that her
steely, lyrical pianism is eminently suited
to the performance of Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart. However, rather than put on a show
with Mozart’s more celebrated piano music
the younger Shaham is focusing her attention
on Mozart’s lesser-performed sonatas en
route to giving us a complete collection of the
elegantly sparse works with their virtually
endless supply of sparkling melodies,
Volume 4 of the ongoing series features
three of the earliest sonatas – the F Major,
No.2 K280, the C Major No.1 K279 and the D
Major, No.6 K284, Dürnitz. Should there be
any question as to why these (early) works
grace the fourth volume of Shaham’s Mozart
Complete Piano Sonatas the answer lies in
the simple fact that they are no less technically
demanding, being as they are of great
harmonic ingenuity and melodic richness, as
the later sonatas.
The Allegro and (especially) the Rondeau
en Polonaise: Andante movement of the
Dürnitz are cases in point. The latter – in
Shaham’s skilful hands – reflects a preeminently
graceful Polish dance of Mozart’s
vivid imagination. As with Volumes 1, 2 and
3 Shaham’s delicate phrasing brings out the
cornucopia of Mozart’s melodic delights from
end to end on this disc, but especially in the
filigreed brilliance of the Dürnitz sonata.
Raul da Gama
Mozart – Piano Concerto No.5 & Church
Sonata No.17
Robert Levin; Academy of Ancient Music
AAM AAM042 (aam.co.uk)
! At first glance,
the music contained
in this recording
is somewhat
perplexing: of all
the incredible music
Mozart composed,
why choose one
full piano concerto,
a few juvenile transcriptions, and a church
sonata that’s less than five minutes long?
There is a reason, and it’s a good one.
In 1993, Robert Levin and Academy of
Ancient Music founder Christopher Hogwood
set out to record Mozart’s complete works
for keyboard and orchestra, with the first
of a planned 13 recordings released in 1994.
Despite its noble intentions, the project was
cancelled midway through, as the advent of
downloadable digital music formats in the
early 2000s changed the market quickly and
drastically. Now, over 20 years later, AAM and
Levin are continuing the cycle, scheduled for
completion in June 2024, which will become
the first-ever recording of Mozart’s complete
works for keyboard and orchestra on either
modern or historical instruments.
The most aurally striking aspect of this
recording is that the Piano Concerto No.5 in D
Major K175 doesn’t feature a piano at all, but
rather an organ. This is for several reasons,
including the necessity of a pedalboard to
reach the lowest notes in the keyboard part,
the limited upper range, and Mozart’s use of
the term Clavicembalo, generic nomenclature
that encompassed a range of keyboard
instruments. Rather than being impractically
theoretical, however, the use of the organ
provides great clarity and prominence to the
solo part and blends exceedingly well with
the ensemble.
The other noteworthy pieces on this
recording are the Three Piano Concertos
after J.C. Bach K107, through which the
young Mozart learned his craft and honed his
skills. Far from the masterpieces of his later
years, these works were joint efforts between
Wolfgang and his fathe, Leopold, who would
revise his son’s transcriptions and add embellishments
and other instructional guidance.
Juxtaposing these early works with
only slightly more mature compositions, the
younger Mozart clearly learned quickly.
A valuable component of a valuable project,
this recording is informative and tremendously
appealing, both individually and as
part of its larger set.
Matthew Whitfield
62 | October & November 2023 thewholenote.com