Mozart - Complete Piano Variations

Ronald Brautigam: fortepiano

Lossless: Ape (img + cue + log) = 835 mb
Lossy: Mp3 (lame "preset standard") = 342 mb
Scans (English notes) @ 300dpi = 23 mb

Total playing time: 60:37 + 63:07 + 61:37 + 61:21

Recorded: August 1997, Länna Church, Sweden

Released: 2001, BIS-CD-1266/1267

Track listing:
CD 1
1. 12 Variations In C Major On "Ah, Vous Dirai-Je Maman"
2. 8 Variations In G-Major On "Laat Ons Juichen, Batavieren!" (Christian Ernst Graaf)
3. 12 Variations In B-Flat Major On An Allegretto
4. 12 Variations In E-Flat Major On "La Belle Françoise"
5. 6 Variations In F Major On "Salve Tu, Domine" (From Paisello, I Filosofi Immaginarii)
6. Praeludium (Modulating F Major - E Minor)
7. Rondo In A Minor

CD 2
1. 10 Variations En G Majeur
2. Ouverture : Ouverture
3. Ouverture : Allemande
4. Ouverture : Courante
5. Kleiner Trauermarch In E-Moll: Marche Funebre Del Sig.R Maestro Contrapunto
6. Acht Variationen In F-Dur
7. Zwölf Variationen In C-Dur
8. Clavierstück In F-Dur
9. Fantastic Fragment In D-Moll

CD 3
1. 8 Variations in F major on 'Ein Weib ist das herrlichste Ding', K.613
2. Praludium in C major, K.284a
3. Praludium (Fantasie) und Fuge in C major, K.394 - I. Prelude
4. Praludium (Fantasie) und Fuge in C major, K.394 - II. Fugue
5. 12 Variations in E-flat major on a Romance 'Je suis Lindor', K.354
6. Gigue in G major, K.574
7. Adagio in B minor, K.540

CD 4
1. Neun Variationed in D-Dur, K.573
2. Sechs Variationed in G-Dur, K.180
3. Neun Variationed in C-Dur, K.264
4. Thema in F-Dur mit funf Variationen, K.Anh 138a
5. Sieben Variationed in D-Dur, K.25
6. Zwei Variationed in A-Dur, K.460
7. Rondo in D-Dur, K.485

Reviews:
Classicstoday
A signpost reading "Caution: Genius at Play" should mark each and every set of keyboard variations penned by Mozart. The variation form is where Mozart didn't compose so much as he jammed, riffed, and allowed his powdered wig to all hang out in between big projects like operas and concertos. Mozart probably improvised some of these works before setting them to paper, and they best communicate when played in an unfettered, spontaneous manner. The fluency of Mozart's ideas and the beauty and logic inherent in the piano writing has to come across without the pianist sounding as if he or she has practiced the tricky passages a thousand times. Even more than in his excellent Mozart sonata cycle for BIS, Ronald Brautigam's tempos feel just right, whether adrenaline supplements seem to be fueling the pianist's potent left hand in the C major Variations on "Ah, vous dirai-je Maman" and E-flat major set on "La belle Françoise", or the delightful, show-offy sections of the "Je Suis Landor" Variations K. 354.

Other significant works sprinkled among the variation sets include Eine Kleine Gigue (its dizzying metric displacements tossed off with lightness and glee), a flexible and refreshingly unsolemn B minor Adagio, the perky D major Rondo, and a graceful and supple rendition of the underrated French Overture K. 399, with its harmonically sophisticated Allemande. In a handful of pieces like the A minor Rondo, I feel that Brautigam's little holdbacks and feminine endings are a bit precious, studied, and ultimately predictable. However, that hardly detracts from the collection's overall success. Once again Brautigam uses a Paul McNulty fortepiano (modeled after an Anton-Gabriel Walter instrument circa 1795). Unlike many fortepianos, it doesn't boast pronounced timbral differences from one register to another, but most of the time the soft pedal produces a delicate lute-like sonority that greatly contrasts to the instrument's tangy brightness. With BIS selling these four discs at the price of two, how can you go wrong?

Musicweb
Brautigam has already recorded the complete Mozart sonatas (BIS-CD-835/837) and, as you can see, although this is called "Complete Piano Variations" it actually slips in along the way (the discs are arranged in listenable sequences, not as above) most but not all of the miscellaneous pieces. I find this a little strange. Having got this far Brautigam presumably wishes to finish recording all Mozart’s piano music and the pieces left over – a handful of sonata allegros, a few minuets and a small number of odds and ends – hardly amount to a full CD (it would be churlish, when this box is being offered at 4 CDs for the price of 2, to suggest that there might have been room for them here, for the timings are not all that long). So why not finish the job then and there?

Compared with most recordings of the variations, this includes K. Anh. 138a, usually known as part of the Sonata K. 547a (but not included in Brautigam’s sonata recordings). The very informative booklet notes go into this in some detail, but not so much as to explain why my Peters edition has an additional variation and a coda not played here.

The instrument used was made in 1992 by Paul McNulty in Amsterdam, following a model of Anton Gabriel Walter of c. 1795. There are times when listening to a fortepiano provokes the irreverent consideration that, were I to record a programme on my auntie’s old upright and palm it off as a fortepiano, no one would know the difference. I think it is the richness of the harmonics which proclaim the present as an instrument of very high quality (and it responds to recording in a church as pianos almost never do). The many, many brilliant pieces here have a really exciting sound, with something of a harpsichord ping to the lower register, tempered with sweetness in the upper notes. Listen to the two presto sections in the D minor Fantasia where rapid scales cover the whole range of the keyboard to hear what a splendidly voiced instrument this is (and what a splendidly even touch Brautigam has). My notes are full of comments such as "a splendid display", so once for all I’ll quote K. 613 as a set of variations which shows pianist and instrument at their full-blooded best. (Note also the covered tone obtained for the minor-key variation). No less effective are the more delicate, musical-box sonorities of K. 573, while the chords of the funeral march for Sig. Maestro Contrapunto are strikingly rich without heaviness.

If I now have to make a few reservations, it should be remembered that most of the music here is of a brilliant, virtuosic nature and my reservations therefore regard a minority of the pieces.

Where grace is called for, as in the last part of the D minor fantasia or the D major rondo, Brautigam remains obstinately firm toned and rather heavy. By the same token K. 455 is somewhat perfunctory. One of the advantages of the fortepiano over the piano is supposed to be that chords from the middle register down don’t sound clumpy. Unfortunately the accompaniment to the principal theme of the A minor rondo shows that they do if the pianist does nothing to unclump them (whereas Rubinstein with his modern Steinway reduces his accompaniment to a gentle pulsation). A melody line tied down by an obtrusively chugging accompaniment tends to be a liability in slow pieces and variations. I noticed this first in the 11th variation of K. 353, and the Adagio in B minor is a long haul indeed. Brautigam seems to find it difficult to liberate his melodies from their accompaniments as we are told Mozart himself did, though to be fair I did make a note that he managed to voice the different layers of texture very successfully in the slow variation of K. 264. I also noted in the freer variations of K. 613 a degree of spontaneity which is not always present elsewhere.

So what does this add up to? Brautigam’s brilliance and enthusiasm, as well as the instrument itself, are just what is needed most of the time. Perhaps he will now record some of the concertos and seek out that depth and spontaneity which he seems capable of, but does not yet have completely on tap, as it were.

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