In the crowded marketplace of Mozart keyboard recordings, this one has a gimmick: it collects Mozart piano pieces written in minor keys. There are reasonable justifications for this, some of which are examined by pianist Indre Petrauskaite in her notes. These pieces may have a closer link to biographical events than other Mozart works do, but really, this isn't the main reason to hear this absorbing recording. Petrauskaite has an original voice in Mozart, not something that's so easy to accomplish. She is what's called a ...
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In the crowded marketplace of Mozart keyboard recordings, this one has a gimmick: it collects Mozart piano pieces written in minor keys. There are reasonable justifications for this, some of which are examined by pianist Indre Petrauskaite in her notes. These pieces may have a closer link to biographical events than other Mozart works do, but really, this isn't the main reason to hear this absorbing recording. Petrauskaite has an original voice in Mozart, not something that's so easy to accomplish. She is what's called a strong pianist, generally avoiding the delicately lyrical style in Mozart except in small details. Listen to the finale of the Piano Sonata in A minor, K. 310, where the A major episode is not given the legato lilt of almost every other pianist. In the paired Fantasy in C minor, K. 475, and Piano Sonata in C minor, K. 457, Petrauskaite is closer to Beethoven than almost any other pianist. The short minor-key pieces here -- the wildly experimental Chopin-like Adagio in B minor, K. 540,...
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