Among the individual discs encompassing Paul Badura-Skoda’s fortepiano Mozart sonata cycle, the present volume is one of the strongest. The pianist takes full advantage of his 1790 Johann Schantz Viennese instrument, conjuring up ravishing harp-like sonorities and sustain-pedal effects that will make you want to hear the A major sonata’s first-movement variations or the central-movement trio several times in a row. Indeed, the instrument’s timbral allure factors into the famous Turkish March finale’s Janissary-tinged atmosphere. Badura-Skoda takes the A minor sonata’s opening-movement Maestoso directive seriously, but his phrasing is a bit square and downbeat-oriented. But the pianist makes the most of the composer’s few yet decisive dynamic indications in the finale.
Mozart’s wonderful C major K. 330 sonata receives an uneven performance. In the opening movement Badura-Skoda hyper-accents the first note, places a mincing tenuto on the downbeat of the third measure, struggles a bit with the right hand 32nd-note runs in measures 13 and 15, and generally fails to go with the flow, so to speak. More lyricism and flexibility might have freed the pianist from the straightjacket he imposes on the slow movement. Badura-Skoda’s rhythmically crisp and imaginatively shaded fingerwork, though, brilliantly underscores the finale’s underlying humor. Quibbles aside, this is a release worth hearing.
