This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.
Notes and Editorial Reviews
*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***
The young Peter Serkin's late-1960s RCA solo Mozart album sounds as fresh and individually compelling as it did four decades ago when I first acquired it as a double-LP set and wore it out within a year. Rare hints of wow and flutter betray the age of these excellent-sounding recordings, although I suspect that the Japanese RCA CDs Arkivmusic.com sourced for this "on-demand" release stem from production masters rather than first-generation session tapes.
Serkin simply is astonishing. He takes nearly 20 unprecedented minutes to get through the C minor Fantasia, yet his acute sense of continuity and shape make every
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note count. While Serkin's tempos for the C minor sonata movements fall under relatively conventional parameters, you certainly can't call his supple passagework and lightly sprung rhythms ordinary. Similar technical control and polyphonic awareness inform the F major sonata and C major Fantasia and Fugue.
Some may find the D minor Fantasia overpointed and fussy, yet I feel Serkin's metric liberties are entirely in keeping with the music's improvisatory impulses. If the D major Rondo's main melody appears to flow more evenly to casual ears, that's because Serkin plays the ornaments before the beat. His leisurely, introspective unfolding of the A minor Rondo conveys a muted intensity that differs from his simpler, more forcefully-projected Pro Arte remake from the mid-'80s. This is a release to cherish, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com
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Works on This Recording
1.
Fantasy for Piano in C minor, K 475 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Peter Serkin (Piano)
Period: Classical
Written: 1785; Vienna, Austria
Date of Recording: 12/09/1968
2.
Sonata for Piano no 14 in C minor, K 457 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Peter Serkin (Piano)
Period: Classical
Written: 1784; Vienna, Austria
Date of Recording: 12/09/1968
3.
Prelude and Fugue for Piano in C major, K 394 (383a) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Peter Serkin (Piano)
Period: Classical
Written: 1782; Vienna, Austria
4.
Sonata for Piano no 15 in F major, K 533 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Peter Serkin (Piano)
Period: Classical
Written: 1788; Vienna, Austria
5.
Fantasia for Piano in D minor, K 397 (385g) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Peter Serkin (Piano)
Period: Classical
Written: 1782; Vienna, Austria
Date of Recording: 06/1969
6.
Rondo for Piano no 1 in D major, K 485 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Peter Serkin (Piano)
Period: Classical
Written: 1786; Vienna, Austria
Date of Recording: 06/1969
7.
Rondo for Piano no 3 in A minor, K 511 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Peter Serkin (Piano)
Period: Classical
Written: 1787; Vienna, Austria
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