(++++) PIANO PERSPECTIVES

Mozart: Complete Piano Sonatas, Volume 2—Nos. 9, 12 and 18; Volume 3—Nos. 4, 5, 11 and 16. Orli Shaham, piano. Canary Classics. $29.98 (2 CDs).

Martin Matalon: Piano Music—Trame IV; Artificios; Dos Formas del Tiempo; La Makina. Elena Klionsky, piano; New Juilliard Ensemble conducted by Joel Sachs; Salome Jordania, piano; Eve Payeur and Julián Macedo, percussion; David Adamcyck, electronics. MSR Classics. $14.95.

     Mozart’s piano sonatas fit very neatly on five CDs, but the cycle that Orli Shaham is in the process of creating on Canary Classics is going to have six discs – one indication among many of the personal nature of her approach. Why six? Well, the sonatas are being released in no discernible pattern, which means the volumes apparently reflect Shaham’s personal feelings about which pieces go well with – or contrast best with – which others. This is not a set for anyone seeking orderly presentation. But that does not detract from the high quality of the performances themselves, however quirkily they may be arranged. The second and third volumes are now available as a two-CD set, and they show Shaham continuing the approach she began in the first volume, which included only three sonatas: the ones that Mozart wrote in the key of B-flat. Matters are more wide-ranging this time: the Volume 2 sonatas are in A minor, F and D, while the Volume 3 works are in C, E-flat, G and A. But Shaham’s approach remains consistent. She plays a modern piano, does not hesitate to use the sustaining pedal to a considerable extent (although usually without overdoing it), takes the indicated repeats, and uses repeated sections for additional ornamentation – usually enough to make the repeats sound a touch different but not too different from the original presentations. Unlike Beethoven’s piano sonatas, Mozart’s have enough similarity so that a performer can wear out his or her welcome when playing several of them: there are enough parallels of sound and structure so that it takes some thought to make the pieces distinctive. Shaham is good at showing the diversity of the sonatas. In No. 9, she does a nice job with the syncopation in the second movement and the third-movement anticipation of a theme that Mozart would later use in Piano Concerto No. 21. In No. 12, she does especially well with the ornamentation in the second movement: Shaham generally likes musical ornaments, including the ones she creates herself during repeats. In No. 18, the latest work offered here, she certainly has no difficulty with the sonata’s technical demands – it is one of Mozart’s harder works in the form – and seems especially to enjoy the playful aspects of the finale. The first of the four works in what is labeled as Volume 3, Sonata No. 16, was designated by the composer as “for beginners” but needs to be taken seriously by advanced players, something that not all performers do. Shaham, however, plays it as if she enjoys it, which is a fine and appropriate approach. Nos. 4 and 5 are short, early works, and they too are on the easy side and simply structured: for example, the development in the first movement of No. 5 is only 18 measures long. Shaham plays them pleasantly enough and without overdoing anything. As for No. 11, whose final movement is the famous Alla turca, Shaham does a particularly nice job of making it clear that there are three movements to the work, not just letting the finale carry the whole thing. In fact, the first movement’s theme-and-variations approach was innovative for its time: Mozart and other Classical-era composers generally created first movements in sonata form. Shaham handles the sonata adeptly, and breezes through its finale in fine fettle without making it seem like the work’s focal point. There is nothing in Shaham’s performances in these volumes – or the first one – that will change listeners’ perceptions of Mozart’s sonatas; nothing is especially innovative, although everything is nicely proportioned and heartfelt without being emotionally overdone. An occasional movement or part of a movement drags a bit as Shaham seeks out what emotion the works contain, but tempos are generally well-considered, and the additional ornamentation that is clearly important to Shaham comes across well – although listeners will not find it crucial to the enjoyment of these pieces. Shaham is producing an admirably pleasant Mozart cycle that is most notable for the enjoyment that she seems to feel when playing the music and that she is therefore able to communicate effectively to listeners.

     Piano music has undergone enormous changes since Mozart’s day, as has the piano itself – one reason that performing Mozart on a modern piano is not really ideal – but even in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, composers have found the piano uniquely able to put across their musical thinking and thus to connect with audiences. Argentinian composer Martin Matalon (born 1958) uses the piano in a variety of communicative ways in the works on a (+++) MSR Classics CD featuring pianist Elena Klionsky – to whom one of the pieces, Artificios (2014) for solo piano, is dedicated. That work is pleasant enough, a kind of fantasia with tonal roots but wide-ranging harmonies, although it seems more of an extended exercise for Klionsky than a piece with anything significant to say. Matalon uses the piano more creatively in some of the other music on the disc, although that does not mean the piano sounds better: Matalon delves into many of the extended techniques so familiar from other modern composers’ works, creating sound worlds that can be elaborate but that spend most of their time calling attention to themselves and their presumed cleverness. Thus, Trame IV (2001), for piano and 11 instruments, is cacophonous and dramatic without ever really becoming compelling. And the longest work on the CD, La Makina (2007), for two pianos, two percussionists, and electronics, explores the usual comparisons and contrasts of acoustic and electronic sounds, mainly using the piano for its percussion-instrument characteristics rather than its expressive abilities. The work is intermittently interesting, as when Matalon has electronics so closely approximate the piano’s sound that it is hard to tell where the acoustic material ends and the electronic elements begin. And the integration of the piano into the other percussion – it is, after all, a percussion instrument – is well-handled. But at more than 22 minutes, the piece simply does not have enough to say to sustain interest, and many of the electronic effects are duplicative of similar ones by other composers – the totality of La Makina is, in a way, mechanistic. Interestingly, the fourth piece on the CD, which like Artificios is for solo piano, is more intriguing despite its smaller tonal palette. This is Dos Formas del Tiempo (2000), which gives Klionsky plenty of opportunities to showcase her rhythmic skill, expressive abilities and close attention to dynamics. This is scarcely a profound work – and, like Artificios, in some ways it seems more like an étude for the pianist than a piece aimed at satisfying an audience. But there is enough variation of sound, tempo, harmony and special pianistic effects to make the work a worthwhile listening experience. Certainly Matalon’s aims in his piano music are quite different from Mozart’s intentions in his, and not only because of the two composers’ very different harmonic languages and approaches to style. But it is provocative to consider the many ways in which the piano, through so many different designs and forms and over so many years, has remained a primary instrument of choice for composers seeking an effective way to communicate their ideas.