Andreas Staier - Mozart: Piano Sonatas (2012)

Behind every Mozart solo piano composition is the human voice, and many interpreters understandably build their interpretations from the melody line down. By contrast, fortepianist Andreas Staier generates rhythmic and dramatic momentum by letting his left hand lead, so to speak. His firm, sharply delineated bass lines in the C minor sonata's outer movements and the E-flat sonata's Allegro finale evoke a symphonic rather than operatic aura that proves far more stimulating than Paul Badura-Skoda's equally rigorous yet less vibrant fortepiano traversals. I also applaud Staier's decision to take the E-flat sonata's central Menuets at a brisk one-beat-to-a-bar and especially appreciate his delicious accenting of the Eine Kleine Gigue's dizzying cross-rhythms. Staier uses the gigue to close the unfinished C major Suite K. 399, and offers a convincing completion to the Sarabande that Mozart broke off after six measures. The G major Variations on a theme by Gluck are admirably fluent, straightforward, and free from the archness that Ronald Brautigam sometimes displays. -- Jed Distler