Scott Noriega
Fanfare, USA
January 2013

Entitled 'Mozart-Paris and Vienna: A Tale of Two Cities', the current recording encompasses a wide range of pianistic genres in which Mozart wrote in the last decade of his life. The composer himself never completed some works, such as the C minor Fantasia and the B flat major Allegro performed here; they were later finished by another Austrian composer and contemporary of Mozart's, Abbé Stadler. Most importantly—though they may not be the best of which Mozart was capable—when programmed with the composer's other completed compositions the recital maintains a sense of interest from beginning to end; in other words, it feels like a true recital, rather than a recording of various works by the composer.

So what does it take to successfully pull off such a varied program? It takes a pianist of capable fingers-one who can handle not only the many virtuosic passages, but who can make them sound easy, one who has a special rounded quality of tone production, one with a deep understanding of the lyrical qualities inherent in this music, along with a sense of the linear aspects of the writing. The Austrian pianist, Gottlieb Wallisch, brings many of these qualities to his interpretations. The finale of the Piano Sonata in F, K332, is beautifully executed: It is fleet, has a wonderful sense of direction, and in its minor-hued passages even has a tinge of the melancholic.

The late Andante in F, K616—originally composed for mechanical organ—has a sense of the mechanical to it: a positive trait here. Never is it over-sentimentalized in this performance, but neither does it leave one cold to its inherent charms. The Variations in F, K398, are brilliantly realized, providing a nice foil to the seriousness of some of the other works on the recital.

Wallisch certainly brings much to this recital. In the faster, more brilliant sections, he is a pro. He is, in his early to mid-30s, still young though. If he can hone in on those moments of Innigkeit he could be, with all of the positive qualities he brings already, a superstar. I eagerly await hearing his future projects: He simply sounds that good in his phenomenal moments to discount them altogether.