Mozart: Complete Keyboard Works

Brilliance, fluency, clarity and extraordinary communicative powers – Mozart seems to have had them all. Little wonder he was hailed as the finest pianist of his generation – even rivals such as Clementi commented "I had never heard anyone play with so much spirit and grace…" Of course we have no idea how Mozart the pianist sounded. We have the reviews and comments of those who heard him perform, and we have the instruments of his time. These do take us some way to understanding performance practice of the day, and the limitations of the instruments, and how composers of the late 18th century worked to test the instruments, and make greater demands upon the constantly evolving pianoforte. On these 14 CDs, everything Mozart wrote for solo keyboard, or for 4-hands is here, from small works written down by his incredulous father Leopold when his son as just 5 years old, to the works of the child prodigy through to the masterpieces of the mature genius. There is much that is well known here, but interestingly there are several first recordings. All the works are played on pianofortes of the period. Other information: - First complete cycle using period instruments, including world premiere recordings. - Extensive booklet notes on an accompanying CD-ROM.