Mozart: The Complete Piano Sonatas
Label: Canary Classics
Released: November 15, 2024
Orli Shaham, piano
In this monumental survey of Mozart's complete Piano Sonatas, Orli Shaham is revered as a "thrillingly expressive" interpreter of Mozart's works bringing "technical virtuosity and deftness" to performances that "connect directly with an audience." Shaham is a musical polymath: an internationally renowned concert pianist who performs an astonishingly wide range of repertoire; a deft programer in recitals and as artistic director and host of Pacific Symphony's chamber music series in California; a dedicated teacher on faculty at The Juilliard School; a noted radio broadcaster known for her sharp wit and keen intellect; and founder of Bach Yard, an interactive concert series for young children. Recorded in Ms. Shaham's favorite venue, Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts, each volume in this box set comes with extensive program notes that gives the listener immeasurable insight towards the Shaham's artistry, musicality, and interpretation. "When you become open to all eighteen sonatas as one body of work, you discover that the breadth of ideas, types of sounds, and depth of expression they contain are quite mind-boggling," says the pianist. The artistic genius in Mozart is that he leaves the performer to capture the mood in the music, and this Orli Shaham does with aplomb, the studio environment for this recording encouraging her to experiment and "go all out" with ornamentation, adding or subtracting trills and grace notes with successive takes.
it will certainly be among the top 10 surveys of these pieces. This is a cycle not to be missed by any Mozartean.
Cinemusical“A top-tier and consistently satisfying Mozart cycle.” — International Piano
“a significant recording achievement for Mozarteans ... brilliantly handled ... it is time to mark this as one of the significant releases in the Mozart discography and now one can even listen through all the sonatas in chronological order, though the pairings throughout the series have been intelligently determined and help each sonata stand on its own well. Highly Recommended!" — Cinemusical
"Shaham’s artistry... easily holds its own alongside some of my favourite modern-day Mozart sonata cycles" — Gramophone
"Shaham avoids the common pitfall of painting Mozart's portrait as a dainty child prodigy, and instead brings out his free and youthful spirit, an essential feature of his melodic lines. ... Under her hands, this is not simply the music of cute little powdered-wig Wolfgang, but the music of a master of the keyboard who knew exactly how to make the piano sing and dance." — Classical Music Sentinel
"a remarkable set" — Classical Candor