Album

The question of whether you can speak of a "late style" for a composer who died young is troublesome. Surely neither Mozart nor Schubert had the death-haunted thoughts that Romantic legend-makers ascribed to them. But the recital devised here by Japanese pianist Atsuko Seki makes a good deal of sense. Those two composers, along with Haydn, made stylistic breakthroughs in the last years of their lives, whether it was because they sensed impending death or not. Seki is not a pianist who grabs your attention with unorthodox readings, but her carefully considered playing, developing the implications of plainly stated motives at the beginning, fits these works well. Her tempos are moderate throughout. With the Haydn Piano Sonata in C major, Hob. 16/50, she brings out the key role of the late Haydn sonatas as forerunners of the Romantic language. With the first movement's opening subject, the link between the tonic triad and the main thematic material of a movement was severed. The four Schubert Impromptus, Op. 142, weighty pieces that belie their name, emerge in their full thematic and harmonic complexity, with the jewel-like Variations of a Minuet of Duport, K. 573, of Mozart as an interlude in the middle. This Swiss release doesn't rewrite the book on any of these pieces, but it's a satisfying recording of Classical-period works. The rudimentary notes (in German, French, and English) and the sound are both negatives.

© James Manheim, Rovi

CD 1
(Franz) Joseph Haydn Composer Keyboard Sonata in C, Hob.XVI:50 (No.60) Work 13:34 Atsuko Seki Piano
1	1.Allegro	6:01			$0.99
2	2.Adagio	5:03			$0.99
3	3.Finale: Allegro molto	2:30			$0.99
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Composer Variations on the Minuet of J.P. Duport in D, K.573 Work Atsuko Seki Piano
4	Variations on the Minuet of J.P. Duport in D, K.573	10:05			$1.99
Franz Peter Schubert Composer 4 Impromptus, D.935, Op.posth.142 Work 33:34 Atsuko Seki Piano
5	No.1 in F-: Allegro moderato	9:50			$1.49
6	No.2 in Ab: Allegretto	5:39			$0.99
7	No.3 in Bb: Andante (Theme and Variations)	11:52			$1.99
8	No.4 in F-: Allegro scherzando	6:13			$0.99