Orli Shaham: Mozart Complete Piano Sonatas (Volumes 2 and 3)
Canary Classics

The Chicago Tribune has hailed pianist Orli Shaham as “a first-rate Mozartean,” and certainly her performances on this second volume of his sonatas support the claim. No one interpretation of a composer's work is ever definitive, but Shaham's engrossing treatments certainly hold their own with the best. She's a consummate musician of prodigious ability whose deep engagement with the sonatas and grasp of their form and detail make the release essential listening for Mozart devotees. Her understanding of the composer is so complete, one might almost think she plays him exclusively; in fact, Shaham, who's on the piano and chamber music faculty at The Juilliard School, has established herself as a superb interpreter of both standard and modern repertoire. Her recordings include performances of Prokofiev and John Adams, to cite two examples.

While the interpretations are faithful to Mozart's writing, they're also extremely personal for featuring improvisations by her—not brazenly imposed but done in sections that Mozart left open for that purpose. This gives the performances an exciting freshness, that quality a natural consequence of the attempt to, in her words, “capture the spontaneous feeling of live performance.” There's a palpable feeling of Mozart speaking through the pianist here, with Shaham wholly attuned to the music's scaffolding and building upon it thoughtfully.

We're used to being told about Mozart's genius, yet it's still staggering to realize he created these sonatas between 1775 and 1789, with the earliest, the dazzlingly lyrical Sonata in G Major, No. 5, K. 283, when he was but nineteen years old. Of the seven presented, all but one are in major keys, the opening Sonata in A Minor, No. 9, K. 310 the exception. Its opening movement lunges insistently forth with Shaham infusing its relentless pulsation with passion. Having set the scene with a towering opening, Mozart scales back for a gentle andante of characteristic grace, the affection Shaham has for the music evident in every trill and delicately rendered melody. After a breezy “Presto” caps the work, she turns to the Sonata in F Major, No. 12, K. 332, which leaves the unease of the ninth behind for eloquent melodic flow and a central adagio she executes with artful control.

The familiar Sonata in C Major, No. 16, K. 545 is no less appealing for being so when she delivers it with so much enthusiasm and affection. After handily executing acrobatic runs in the first part, she gives resonant voice to the reverie-like second and the humming Sonata in E-flat Major, No. 4, K. 282 that follows. Shaham loved it when introduced to its endearing adagio and two minuets as a child, and the evidence suggests she still feels much the same way. Also well-known is the Sonata in A Major, No. 11, K. 331, which concludes the release with its famously joyous “Alla turca” and an expansive theme-and-variations opening movement, whose folk song-like theme is treated to an endlessly inventive range of treatments in this fourteen-minute essaying.

October 2022