Dejan Lazić - Mozart: Retrospection (1999)

There is hardly any area of music that does not allow Mozart’s genius to achieve complete fulfilment. In the course of his brief life, he achieved such perfection that the listener can simply let the music pour over him and enjoy it. That Mozart is a particular favorite with a wide variety of audiences is closely related to his compelling qualities and broad range of characterization. His creative spectrum is so extensive and subtle that every listener can find his own favorite color within it. One senses from his music that he is truly open and honest. He knows how to translate his mood subtly into music. And so we encounter much of his wit, joy, and childlike quality as well as deep sensitivity, grief, and sentimentality. The expression of feelings is so manifold and powerful, that many people misunderstand Mozart and assess him falsely as a ‘jocose’ composer. This superficial assessment is just as dangerous for any would-be interpreter of Mozart’s music.

Even though Mozart was essentially a joyful personality, his life was also marked by suspense, disillusionment, and hope…and all of this is mirrored in his music. His piano music is not ‘pianistically’ but ‘orchestrally’ conceived. I, of course, do not know what Mozart would have thought of a modern piano, but just these very orchestral sounds—nuances, changing tone qualities, and articulations such as delicate piano legato passages and strong tutti style fortes— can be better reproduced, in my opinion, on this modern 1906 Steinway than on a fortepiano.