Mozart Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2 – Liv Glaser

The mysteries of improvisation in Mozart

After Liv Glaser´s previous recording of the young Mozart´s first five sonatas, the tracks lead naturally to the mysterious world of improvisation. We have abundant proof that Mozart the child prodigy dumbfounded his audiences by his fantastic prowess in this field. Only a fraction of all his astounding improvisations have been committed to paper and left to posterity, however, we can be eternally grateful for what he noted down after all. We can also be very grateful that Liv Glaser has recorded these variations which gives us a clear impression of Mozart´s mastery of the genre.

On this album Liv Glaser performs three of Mozart´s Sonatas and his Fanatasie, K 475. The A major sonata is perhaps the composer´s most famous, a piece that must have enchanted audiences in Mozart´s time, particularly in view of the Turkish “rage” sweeping across Europe in those days. Anyone who enjoys the happy compositional solutions in the variations of the A major sonata will certainly appreciate the Dürnitz Sonata just as much, a work which bubble over with inventiveness, spanning a whole range of pianistic finesses and merry rhythmic surprises. His c minor sonata has a sensation of turbulence as Mozart time after time approaches the very limit of the piano´s compass, often placing his themes in the depths of the dark-sounding bass register. The desperate fluctuations of register are also present in his Fantasie, envisaging an even darker scenario – a witness to Mozart´s improvisational genius and one of the most personal and overwhelming works in the literature of music. Its origin – the source – is a mystery that will fill listeners everywhere with a blissful sense of wonder.