Mozart: Complete Clavier Works, Vol. 5 (2007)

Various artists have given persuasive performances of Mozart's keyboard music on the fortepiano, but the series of recordings by German keyboardist Siegbert Rampe on the historically oriented MDG label does something rarer: Rampe attempts to perform Mozart's works on instruments resembling those that would have been used in the original performances. Thus the passionate Sonata in A minor, K. 310, that opens the program is played on a harpsichord -- quite a shock if you start the CD without reading Rampe's detailed notes ... Read More

Various artists have given persuasive performances of Mozart's keyboard music on the fortepiano, but the series of recordings by German keyboardist Siegbert Rampe on the historically oriented MDG label does something rarer: Rampe attempts to perform Mozart's works on instruments resembling those that would have been used in the original performances. Thus the passionate Sonata in A minor, K. 310, that opens the program is played on a harpsichord -- quite a shock if you start the CD without reading Rampe's detailed notes beforehand, but, he explains, authentic for Paris in 1778 according to Mozart's own testimony. There's a hint of complaint in that testimony, for Mozart was beginning to think in pianistic terms by this point, but it's nevertheless interesting to hear the work played on a the sort of double-manual harpsichord whose builders strove mightily to enable the player to create dynamic effects. Rampe shows just what a variety of textures sheer articulation can create on a harpsichord, and if... Read Less