KUN-WOO PAIK PLAYS MOZART: WIT, WONDER, AND THE UNEXPECTED / Review

KUN-WOO PAIK PLAYS MOZART

WIT, WONDER, AND THE UNEXPECTED

Victoria Concert Hall

Tuesday (4 November 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 November 2025 with the title "Kun-woo Paik delivers Mozart with honesty, depth and artistry in stirring recital".

South Korean pianist Kun-woo Paik has made it a speciality of performing recitals featuring the music of just one composer. In 2014, Franz Schubert was the subject, while Robert Schumann distinguished his 2020 recital. On this evening presented by Altenburg Arts, the offering was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a highly satisfying programme drawn from three recently released all-Mozart recital discs.

It has been said that “Mozart was too easy for amateurs, but too difficult for professionals”. His “easy” C major Sonata (K.545), which carries the sub-title Sonata Facile, may seem to many like child’s play, and how often has it been heard in professional recitals? Almost never, as if performing it were some kind of a condescension.

Paik produced pure poetry in its simple uncluttered lines. Without including repeats nor succumbing to the temptation for ornamentation in its three short movements, the music sounded fresh and unsullied, as if how Mozart wanted it to be. From a virtuoso famous for Liszt, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev, this was some sea change, and one will never hear it the same way again.

Technically and interpretatively more complex was the Rondo in A minor (K.511), a work of intense contemplation and simmering melancholy. Instead of a world-weary trudge commonly encountered, Paik found a wellspring of optimism and hope, like seeing light at the end of a long tunnel.

This paved the way for the early Sonata in F major (K.280) which required fine and meticulous fingerwork coupled with seamless lyricism. Mozart demanded that his music “flow like oil”, and Paik duly delivered a reading of utmost fluency, contrasting the slow movement’s pensiveness with the finale’s wit and humour.

The recital’s second half opened with two miniatures alternating major and minor modes. The diminutive Adagio in C major (K.356, 617a), originally written for glass harmonica, was simplicity itself, while the Little Funeral March in C minor (K.453a) provided moments of seriousness with its sequence of big chords.

The exactly same modes were repeated for two major works, beginning with the Sonata in C major (K.330), one of Mozart’s most sunny utterances. Clarity and crispness of articulation distinguished Paik’s reading, the fast outer movements sandwiching a slow movement of true feeling which alternated between F major and minor. Its finale was a show of unfettered joy.

What followed had to be Mozart’s greatest single-movement work, the Fantasy in C minor (K.475), which encapsulated every vista of his passions and sorrows. Sounding implausibly modern for its time, its harmonic upheavals and myriad dynamic shifts pointed ahead to the turbulence of the Romantic era.

Its stark and unnerving opening of bare octaves spelt extreme sobriety, yet glimpses of congeniality and warmth were revealed in pages to come. Outbursts more associated with Beethoven also coloured its complexion, but Mozart’s complex psyche was finally laid bare by Paik unmannered and unhistrionic account. Despite the clamour, no encore was offered. After playing of such honesty, depth and artistry, none was needed.

Photography by Ung Ruey Loon.

MOZART WITH RODOLFO BARRAEZ AND AUSTIN LARSON

 

MOZART WITH RODOLFO BARRAEZ 

AND AUSTIN LARSON 

Singapore Symphony Orchestra 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Friday (22 November 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 November 2024 with the title "Mozart makes delightful main course with SSO."

It is an incredulous fact that the Singapore Symphony Orchestra has never performed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Horn Concerto No.4 in E flat major (K.495) until this evening. Undoubtedly the most popular and best-known horn concerto in all of classical music, this gaping lacuna had to be filled sometime. 

Better late than never, one is grateful that SSO’s principal French hornist Austin Larson, just appointed to the post last year, did the honours. He is a supremely confident artist, one whose well-projected and warm tone brought much life and humanity to the music. 

Sustaining long unbroken lines and perfect intonation all through made the performance an unmitigated pleasure. The tricky cadenzas in the outer movements were negotiated with ease, while the rapidly repeated notes and quick leaps in the famous hunt-and-chase finale seemed like pure fun. 

Listeners of a certain vintage will remember Flanders and Swann’s comic take on this movement to appreciate its uproarious quality. Larson’s encore of fellow American hornist-composer Gina Gillie’s Ditty for Jonathan (2007) was a brief but dazzling show of brass virtuosity. 

Having supported the concerto to the hilt, the orchestra was on its own in two of Mozart’s most popular symphonies, conducted from memory by SSO’s award-winning Associate Conductor, the young Venezuelan Rodolfo Barraez. 

Genuine congeniality distinguished Symphony No.29 in A major (K.201) which opened the evening. Showcasing an enviable evenness on the strings from its outset, this set the tone for the rest of the work. The Andante slow movement delighted in delicate counterpoint between first and second violins, and later basked in its aria-like second theme. 

The third movement’s Menuet had a light bounce in its dance steps, contrasted by a more leisurely Trio section. The finale had that same vivacious spirit of the hunt, later echoed in the concerto, and sweeping ascending scales – much easier said than done – which brought the symphony to a joyous close. 

More serious was Symphony No.40 in G minor (K.550), part of Mozart’s miraculous final trilogy of 1788, which occupied the concert’s second half. The familiar opening melody was taken at a lighter clip than one might have expected, but the storms and stresses would come later, notably in the development section. 

A steady and unerring pulse dominated the slow movement, which was very polished, but possessing a nervous edge with mild dissonances sprinkled in each page. More contrasts followed with a vigorous Menuet and its graceful Trio counterpart. The Finale with its buffo (comedy in opera) elements and ensuing fugatos (later finding gloriously fruition in his final symphony, the “Jupiter”) was pure icing on this well-baked cake. 

This totally enjoyable concert is emblematic of the era established by SSO’s Austrian Music Director Hans Graf’s tenure since 2020, one in which the performance of Mozart is no longer an afterthought, but the main thought itself.

YUNDI LI PLAYS MOZART: THE SONATA PROJECT I / Review

 

YUNDI LI PLAYS MOZART 

THE SONATA PROJECT 1 

Esplanade Theatre 

Friday (11 October 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 October 2024 with the title "Pianist Yundi Li offers crisp, articulate readings of Mozart".

Fifteen years ago, Chinese pianist Li Yundi gave a most shambolic performance of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, reviewed in these pages as being “shockingly bad”. His star further fell in 2021 after being arrested for allegedly soliciting a Beijing prostitute, which saw him being cancelled from all concert activity in China. 

Yundi's latest CD,
the all-Mozart programme
he performed at the recital.

Surely every artist deserves a chance for redemption. This came in recitals of piano sonatas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, first in Australia last year and later in Europe. These were generally well received and judging from the full-house at Esplanade Theatre (with the Concert Hall undergoing refurbishment), it appears he still has a wide and loyal fanbase in Singapore. 

The good news is that he did not disappoint this time around. His Mozart playing is crisp, articulate and non-idiosyncratic, evident in the opening Theme and Variations of the Sonata in A major (K.331). That he chose to play all repeats gave a chance for this drawing room music to be savoured a second time round, and occasionally with unobstrusive ornamentations. 

His view of its slow movement, a minuet, was one of grace and delicacy. The sonata’s famous Rondo alla Turca (Turkish Rondo) could have had more oomph, as he maintained an unruffled and decorous demeanour throughout. One can almost guess how Yundi’s contemporary Lang Lang would have played this popular bonbon, with the diametrically opposite viewpoint. 

Out of a total of eighteen piano sonatas, Mozart composed just two in the minor key. Yundi performed both of these, first the A minor (K.310), which has some of his most tempestuous music. He brought out its Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) very well and the climactic highs were never made to sound over-congested. 

The slow movement was lovely, its smooth cantabile perfectly judged, while the finale seethed with an unnerving disquiet. Presto movements in the minor key somehow sound more urgent and menacing, despite a brief bell-like interlude in A major. 

Mozart’s other minor key sonata was in C minor (K.457), preceded by the discursive Fantasy in C minor (K.475), which has dissonances and harmonic surprises galore. This has to be his greatest single-movement work, and Yundi treated it as such by accentuating its sharp contours and unexpected dramatics. 

Continuing without break into the sonata caught the noisy audience by surprise, which had robotically applauded without truly listening and appreciating his nuances and cues, thus almost breaking the spell. Yundi persevered nonetheless, delivering what was the finest performance of the evening. The sonata had surging drive in the outer movements and genuine warmth at its pulsing heart of the slow movement. 

His encores of Ren Guang’s Cai Yun Zhui Yue (Colourful Clouds Chasing The Moon) in Wang Jianzhong’s transcription and Frederic Chopin’s Nocturne in E flat major (Op.9 No.2) were just lovely and very well received. It was gratifying to see the sensitive musical soul of Yundi making an honest and gallant comeback.

What a full-house at 
Esplanade Theatre looks like.

MOZART MINORE / SEE SIANG WONG, Piano on RCA / Review

MOZART MINORE

Piano Concertos Nos.20 & 24

SEE SIANG WONG, Piano

Southwest German Philharmonic

Philipp von Steinaecker

RCA Red Seal 19075917322 / TT: 75’51”

 

Works in the minor key were in the minority during the classical era. Consider the fact that only two of Mozart’s 41 symphonies, Nos.25 and 40, were in the minor key (G minor). The same applied to his 18 piano sonatas. Just two, K.310 and 457, were cast in A minor and C minor respectively. Thus it makes perfectly logical sense to couple the two Mozart piano concertos (out of 27) in the minor key within the same album, as the Netherlands-born Chinese pianist See Siang Wong has done.  

 

When one encounters the term Minore, sturm und drang (storm and stress) come to mind. Minor keys are associated with passion, tension, drama and tragedy as opposed to the majestic and regal, happier and light-hearted major keys. D minor was the key of Mozart’s opera seria Don Giovanni and the Requiem Mass, which places his Piano Concerto No.20 (K.466) in very good company. Considered to be his greatest piano concerto, its tutti opening bristles with dramatic tension, strife and tumult.

 

In a similar vein, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.24 (K.491) cast in C minor channels struggle, conflict and ultimately tragedy. One is reminded of Mozart’s morose Fantasie (K.475) and the Great Mass (K.427), both in C minor. And what about Mozart’s influence on Beethoven’s great C minor works, namely his Pathetique Sonata, Third Piano Concerto and Fifth Symphony?

 

Against the rigorous yet fine orchestral backing provided by the Southwest German Philharmonic (based in Konstanz, on Lake Constance), Wong applies the most felicitous of touches in music that is paradoxically both fiery and tender. Besides the totally idiomatic performances, the value of these recordings come in the cadenzas for the first movements. In Piano Concerto No.20, he performs the rarely-heard cadenza by Mozart’s pupil and boarder Johann Nepomuk Hummel, a refreshing change from the usual Beethoven. It is even more virtuosic than Beethoven’s bread and butter and yet has many sensitive moments.

 

In Piano Concerto No.24, he opts for the cadenza by Philipp Karl Hoffmann, a Mainz-born pianist who was a contemporary of Beethoven. This is much longer than expected and totally in keeping with the spirit of sturm und drang. Just as interesting are the ear-catching elaborations and ornamentations applied to the aria-like slow movements. Wong provides his own for K.466, while Hoffmann’s for K.491 all make for very interesting listening.

 

As an encore, Wong offers what is Mozart’s bleakest and most modern sounding solo work, his Adagio in B minor (K.540), in a most eloquent reading. He knows the true meaning of minore and is unafraid to wear this pathos heart on sleeve. 

To sample / download / purchase this recording:

Mozart: Minore - Piano Concertos No. 20 & 24, Adagio K. 540 - RCA: 19075917322 - CD or download | Presto Music

MOZART MATURES / Roberta Rust, Piano / Review

MOZART MATURES

1780s Piano Works

Roberta Rust, Piano

Navona Records NV6403

 

Given that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) lived for a pitiful 35 years, it seems strange to discuss his works of maturity. However his sheer precocity and prolific output, beginning at the age of five and numbering over 626 works, one might consider his last ten years as his period of maturity. 1781 was, after all, the year he got booted out from the employment of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. Becoming a liberated man, he was financially independent and free to do as he pleased.

 

This marvelous recital disc by American pianist Roberta Rust covers the years 1782 to 1789, which also marks Mozart’s most active period as a keyboard composer with 16 concertos, 9 sonatas and numerous shorter pieces. The shorter pieces, including some of Mozart’s most serious compositions, are the main focus of this recital. There is however one sonata, the F major (K.332 from 1783), which illustrates a more flowing and lyrical manner of the ‘style galant’. Rust has a good feel of this elegant music, and performs most persuasively.

 

The two Fantasies are Mozart’s most famous single movement pieces. Opening the disc, the D minor Fantasy (K.397, 1782) is almost improvisatory in feel, alternating between minor and major keys before closing on a spirited high. The C minor Fantasy (K.575, 1785) sounds surprisingly modern for its time, the first two notes being echoed in Chopin’s First Ballade of 1835. Mozart’s harmonies and progressions are truly astonishing, and so are the abrupt dynamic shifts that make it feel so unsettling.

 

Mozart is at his most austere in the Adagio in B minor (K.540, 1788), again distinguished by strident discords and apparent bleakness. Dark clouds hang over most of its 10-minute duration, but Mozart affords a ray of sunshine (and smile) at the very end. Just as mysterious is the Rondo in A minor (K.511, 1787), which has an air of haunting about it. Its slow and hypnotic rhythm is probably the inspiration for many a movie score involving ghost houses. Rust’s approach to these works is one of total clarity and tonal coherence, shunning cheap and sensational effects, all without diminishing the music’s impact.

 

As a bit of levity, the very brief Eine Kleine Gigue (K.574, 1789), a Scarlatti-like binary form miniature is inserted between the Adagio and C minor Fantasy. Between doom and gloom, Mozart’s humour always shines through. Heartily recommended.

 

BAIBA SKRIDE PLAYS MOZART / SALIERI-MOZART DOUBLE BILL / Review

BAIBA SKRIDE PLAYS MOZART

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (1 December 2021)

 

OPERA DOUBLE BILL:

SALIERI & MOZART

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Theatre

Friday (3 December 2021)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 8 December 2021 with the title "Mozart tributes in orchestra and opera". 

One beneficiary of the current Covid pandemic has been the music of Mozart. Ironic as it seems, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra has never played more Mozart in its 42-year history. Far from being staid or boring, new life has been breathed into these classics. Not content with merely sounding pretty, a perfection of form and execution was witnessed in prize-winning Latvian violinist Baiba Skride’s view of  Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.4 in D major.

 

One of his less showy works, its beauty lies in sheer lyricism, which Skride revealed from the outset. Her tone was lush, with a healthy vibrato that was not overdone and precise intonation throughout. She also projected well above the orchestra which did not mince notes in the accompaniment. Any concession for virtuosity took place in the cadenzas of all three movements, and these were also beautifully proportioned.

 

The orchestra led by French conductor Pierre Bleuse lent excellent support without trying to sound like those period instrument bands, and this vigour continued into Mozart’s Symphony No.40, one of just two symphonies cast in the minor key. The associated storms and stresses did not arrive, as the very familiar opening movement came across breezy rather than hectic.

 

This is music that takes a nice long breath, none more so in the expansive slow movement which was all elegance and grace. Even the relative urgency of the third movement soon dissolved into ebullience in the finale, which recalled the lively antics of Mozart’s comic operas.

 

Speaking of the theatre, Singapore Lyric Opera deserves credit for conceiving a Salieri-Mozart double bill of two short comic operas that were premiered simultaneously at Vienna’s Schonbrunn Palace one February day in 1786. Far from being bitter rivals, there existed a respectful and collegial relationship between Antonio Salieri and Mozart, but posterity has always favoured the latter.

 

Conducted by Lien Boon Hua, Salieri’s Prima La Musica e Poi Le Parole (First The Music, Then The Words) was performed before Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario), both united by a common plot about artists, their occupational quirks and supposed rivalries. Tang Xinxin’s clever direction eschewed long dialogues in Italian and German, opting instead for English repartee between sung bits which greatly enhanced the appreciation and enjoyment of both operas.

 

There was a common cast, led by the excellent duelling sopranos Joyce Lee and Sylvia Lee, who came close to cat fights as each tried to gain an upper hand. Short excerpts from other Mozart operas were inserted into both operas, also to good effect. The men completed the buffo element for the farces, with David Tao as Poet/Buff squaring off against Daniel Fong’s Composer and Jonathan MacPherson’s Vogelsang. Their much smaller singing parts were made up by comedic acting and solid characterisations.

 

Plaudits also go to Dorothy Png’s set, lighting and constume design, which plumbed for traditional in Salieri in contrast with modernity in Mozart. The slick movements of curtains and backdrop while Mozart’s Overture to Der Schauspieldirektor was being played represented a symbolic changing of the guard. Whichever way one looked at it, Mozart still won.      

 

VIENNA TO LINZ WITH MOZART / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

VIENNA TO LINZ WITH MOZART

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (6 January 2021)

Witty and ebullient Mozart from the Singapore Symphony

This review was first published on the international music review website Bachtrack (www.bachtrack.com) on 11 January 2021.

 

Live concerts with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra began with a pair of Christmas concerts on 15 and 16 December of last year, bringing festive cheer to an otherwise gloomy close of an annus horribilus. The new year’s first concerts were to have been a trio of evenings with Krystian Zimerman playing all five Beethoven piano concertos, but that had to be cancelled.

 

In their place was a single hour-long concert, retaining its Viennese flavour with the music of Mozart led by the orchestra’s Austrian chief conductor Hans Graf. What could have been crushing disappointment was dispelled when the familiar figure of Philippines-born pianist Albert Tiu strode onstage to perform Mozart’s congenial Piano Concerto No.23 in A major (K.488). The Juilliard-schooled Tiu has been a regular and well-loved fixture in the Singapore concert scene since assuming the position of Associate Professor of piano performance at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in 2003.

 

Although he is better known for performing Romantic repertoire such as Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Chopin and Godowsky, Tiu’s Mozart is every bit worth the attention. To its rococo sensibilities, he offered tonal clarity, limpid fingerwork and a singing seamlessness. Accompanied discreetly and attentively by chamber forces, his solo part became an epitome of good taste and utmost decorum.

 

Then came a most unexpected surprise from left of field. Instead of the usual Mozart cadenza, which is not particularly virtuosic and decidedly short-winded, he served up Leopold Godowsky’s lushly (and decadently) harmonised cadenza. Those familiar with the Pole’s grandiloquent takes on Chopin’s Études might have guessed from the contrapuntal quirks, outlandish sleights of hand and generally unabashed chutzpah.

 

After this cheeky sojourn to the early 20^th century, all returned to the 1780s for the slow movement’s lilting sicilienne. Tiu’s aria-like musings on the keyboard held sway, with melancoly and nostalgia balanced against feather-light string pizzicatos in its sublime last pages. The final rondo had an irrepressible joie de vivre, bringing the concerto to a lively close. Tiu was not done yet, the encore being his own transcription of the selfsame Adagio. Now sans orchestra, little harmonic intricacies were gently teased out, revealing yet more of Mozart’s genius.

 

The concert continued without intermission into Mozart’s “Linz” Symphony. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra has never been renowned as a Mozart or Haydn orchestra, having prioritised Romantic and 20^th century repertoire in programming through its 42-year history. This looks to change under Salzburg-resident Hans Graf’s directorship. The performance of the symphony simply sparkled with a champagne-like ebullience. His mustering of small forces at hand lent the ensemble a buoyancy and litheness through its four movements. At no point was its overall architecture or thematic integrety sacrificed for outward display or superficial effect.

 

The opening introduction was direct and plain-speaking, leading to the Allegro proper with its cheeky appropriation of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus motif. Repeating it like some kind of mantra, the music spelt pure unadulterated joy continuing into the slow movement. While not taken at a particularly slow tempo, there were nevertheless contrasts between light and shade in its alternating major and minor modes. The courtly Minuetto with its gently lilting Trio section saw oboist Rachel Walker and bassoonist Christoph Wichert with delightful repartee. The earlier liveliness returned in the spirited finale, blazing a brilliant path to the concert’s close.

 

Concert life in Singapore following a gradual lifting of circuit breaker measures has begun to pick up with a combination of live and streamed events. This concert, attended by a socially distanced audience, bodes well for a hopeful but somewhat uncertain future.    

 

Star Rating: *****

THE MOZARTEAN EXPERIENCE 2017 / ADDO Chamber Orchestra / Review

THE MOZARTIAN EXPERIENCE 2017

ADDO Chamber Orchestra

Esplanade Recital Studio

Friday (17 February 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 February 2017 with the title "Fun journey through Mozart's life and works".

The ADDO Chamber Orchestra's Mozartean Experience was a sequel to last year's successful concert which had the flavour of a “show and tell” class. A programme sheet given to the audience was designed like a tabloid daily, but the surprise came in lieu of traditional programme notes.

Seconds before conductor Clarence Tan gave his first down-beat, a bewigged blonde dressed in period costume gatecrashed the proceedings. It was Constanze Weber, widow of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who had travelled through time from 1791 to address a 21^st century Singaporean audience on the great Austrian composer's lives and times. Italian singer-actress Sabrina Zuber played such an irrepressible host with her comedic asides that she almost stole the show.

It was the music, however, which prevailed. First up was Antonio Salieri's short Sinfonia Veneziana, which the orchestra warmed up to with some degree of tentativeness. The ensemble comprising just 11 string players backed up by four wind players initially produced a raw and dry sound, but this soon improved in a hurry.

Constanze refuted the notion that Salieri was Mozart's rival and mortal enemy. Instead they were supportive colleagues with a common vision of making good music. As posterity had it, Mozart was gifted with more memorable tunes, like those in his Third and Fourth Horn Concertos, both in the key of E flat major.

Also introduced was Mozart's horn-playing friend Joseph Leutgeb, whose daytime job was that of a cheese-monger. Returning as soloist from the last Mozartean experience was young French hornist Alan Kartik Jairamin from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, who followed up his helpful demonstration of basic horn techniques with confident showings of both works.

He brought out a warm, burnished sound that highlighted the music's lyricism, and then went all virtuoso mode for the cadenzas. His reading of the better-known Fourth Concerto with its hunting romp of a finale proved a big hit with the audience, which lapped up his every turn and phrase.

To complete the evening's E flat major fare was the Symphony No.84 by Joseph Haydn, one of Mozart's teachers and the mentor who predicted his future greatness. The orchestra which had accompanied the horn concertos very well continued their good work under conductor Tan, now sporting a powdered wig (a la the movie Amadeus).

Jokes aside, this was a very credible performance of a rarely heard work. Its solemn opening soon gave way to an Allegro which bubbled ever so animatedly, fully conveying the humour typical of the composer. The slow movement was taken a a goodly pace, followed by a somewhat ungainly Scherzo and Trio, tinged with an infectious rusticity. Although the finale started with a hint of unsteadiness, this was smoothened out with a mercurial run to an exciting close.

For its next concert on 31 May, ADDO Chamber Orchestra turns its sights on another composing great – Ludwig van Beethoven.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, May 2016)

GINASTERA Complete Piano Music

MARIANGELA VACATELLO, Piano

Brilliant Classics 94736 (2CDs) / ****1/2

The year 2016 marks the birth centenary of Argentina's most important composer Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983). His legacy is not unlike that of Heitor Villa-Lobos (in Brazil) and Carlos Chavez (Mexico), for he used popular vernacular melodies, folk idioms and dance rhythms in his compositions, creating a unique sound that become representative of his land and people.

Ginastera's piano music is dominated by three piano sonatas and sets of short pieces, mostly dances and preludes. The most performed of these is his First Piano Sonata (1952) and Three Argentinian Dances (1937), the latter a favourite of Martha Argerich's. These are imbued with a vigorous penchant for fast rhythms, sometimes bordering on the violent, which Italian pianist Mariangela Vacatello captures trenchantly.

Do also listen to his Second and Third Sonatas (1981 and 1982), which are more compact and ups the volume quotient. The Twelve American Preludes (1944) and Suite Of Creole Dances (1946) display a special sympathy for miniatures. The works are performed in chronological order, and one gets a good feel of Ginastera's unique Argentine musical nationalism.   

MOZART ARRANGED

ABC Classics 481 0853 (2 CDs) / ****1/2

This unusual double-disc set has the immortal music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) rearranged and re-imagined by other composers, from his time and after. Listen first to Disc 2, which opens with a string sextet transcription (arranger unknown) of the famous Sinfonia Concertante for violin & viola in E flat major (K.364). Here the solo parts are absorbed into and shared by the general ensemble of two violins, two violas and two cellos, but the music's essence is gloriously retained. 

Slightly more problematic are the string quintet arrangements of the Clarinet Quintet (K.581) and Horn Quartet (K.507) where the winds are eliminated, but the Australia Ensemble @ University of New South Wales is still an excellent and persuasive advocate.

There is anarchic fun to be had in Edvard Grieg's piano duet amplifications of Mozart piano sonatas on Disc 1. One pianist plays the original version over which the second pianist elaborates with added harmonies, counter-melodies and surprise cadences, which often alters the mood and complexion of the original. 

The drawing room pleasures of the G major (K.283) and C major (K.545) sonatas are heightened, while the dramatics of the Fantasy and Sonata in C minor (K.475 and 457) are somewhat trivialised. Purists will decry the graffitisation of music, but excellent duo pianists Julie Adam and Daniel Herscovitch cannot help but having a ball of a time.