[This is typical of the approximately 1500 reviews I wrote for Amazon in the early days of its classical CD section. We were limited to 150 words maximum but that limitation troubled me less than I had expected it to. If you want to see more of these, try searching under my name and probably about 1000 or so of them will pop up! I also did a review of this set for the radio program Performance Today.]
Mozart: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1-8.
Mieczyslaw Horszowski (piano). Arbiter 101.
Not everybody loves this set as much as I do. It was taped, in mono, at two series of concerts; the sound is mostly pretty good but never excellent. There are occasional bloopers, and moments where the pianist’s control isn’t perfect. And yet, I find old man Horszowski’s Mozart a revelation. He generally plays Mozart as a bolder, more assertive composer than the way we usually hear him, and he makes his case with complete conviction. It’s not just the tragic K. 310 that benefits from this approach; all of these Sonatas are compelling to me in these performances, warts and all.
Leslie Gerber.
