Paul Badura-Skoda has been recording Mozart sonatas since the 1950s, including two complete cycles: one from 1978-81 for Eurodisc on a modern-day concert grand, the other from 1984-90 for Naïve using a 1790 Johann Schantz Viennese fortepiano. In February 2013 the 85-year-old pianist revisited K. 545, 330, and 331 for the present release, using an Anton Walter Hammerflügel that also dates from around 1790.
The famous “easy” C major K. 545 first movement sounds clunkier and less graceful than before, with heavier accents and a little more effort in the left-hand Alberti basses. A choppy and overly fast Andante comes next, while the finale’s motive in thirds is not quite so centered as in earlier Badura-Skoda recordings. Although the new K. 330 is less technically assured than the Naïve version, its first two movements prove musically superior. There’s more fluidity in the first movement’s rhetorical stresses, while the slow movement’s basic tempo is less rigid. The pianist’s crisp and expertly shaded Naïve finale, however, has lost its incisive bite.
K. 331 was a high point in both Badura-Skoda Mozart cycles. The new performance essentially offers the same stylish and energetic interpretation, but with slightly less poise and definition to the fingerwork. Whether or not Mozart actually composed the humorous little waltz La Tartine de beurre (the finger glissandos depict the spreading of butter on bread), it’s an effective encore that Badura-Skoda tosses off with plenty of charm and no effort at all. If only one could say that about the main part of the program! Gramola’s resonant engineering contrasts to Naïve’s drier acoustic and closer microphone placement.
