Angela Hewitt’s 50th album for Hyperion completes her survey of the Mozart piano sonatas, here covering the last sonatas plus the extraordinary C minor Fantasia K475, the Variations on 'Ah, vous dirai-je maman' and, if that wasn’t enough, four sundry movements without a proper home, but that deserve to be heard.
The Fantasia is one of the most extraordinary exercises in deferred gratification, running for 13 minutes with essentially no cadences that establish that we are actually in C minor until the very end. It is constantly on the move harmonically, and Hewitt captures the restlessness, while still maintaining her customary cool. I wasn’t sure about following it with the C minor sonata K457—the sonatas are presented in sequential order, but didn’t have to be—as I would have welcomed a bit of light and shade at that point in the disc. This came instead with the crystalline textural simplicity of K533, in F major, which Hewitt allows to meander along its way without the grandeur—or mock-grandeur—of the C minor sonata.
The famous sonata in C originally published as sonata facile, is often played by young pianists, but is by no means as technically easy as the soubriquet suggests. The simplicity comes in the breezily innocent musical material, which Hewitt freely embellishes in a way I’m sure Mozart would have approved of. The second movement is taken at a no-nonsense speed while the finale is taken at a sensible allegretto rather than a gallop.
Of the miscellaneous pieces, the brief Gigue K574 is the standout—Bachian in its contrapuntal athleticism, but with a sparkle that is pure Mozart. The Variations on 'Ah, vous dirai-je maman' take the tune known in English as 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star' and are a virtuoso compositional feat, moving from the most banal opening to concerto-like runs—and then, in variation 11, to a heart-rending aria. Hewitt’s version is probably my favourite of all I’ve heard—and there are some pretty nasty ones around: avoid, in particular, Lang Lang’s abomination. She is nimble and witty, characterising each variation clearly but never striving for effect, and adding runs and decorations that are in the spirit of the birth of this piece as a competitive improvisation.
The last two sonatas, in B flat and D respectively, date from 1789. The former has a gorgeous slow movement, which even though marked Adagio is taken without any self-indulgence, and is all the more moving for that. The D major sonata K576 has none of the introspection of Beethoven’s last sonatas, but is as bright and cheerful as Mozart can be in its straightforwardly-textured outer movements. There is, though, introspection aplenty in the Adagio K540 and Rondo K511 that finish this lovely cycle: the Rondo dates from the time of the death of Mozart’s father, and is freighted with emotion that Hewitt recognises but doesn’t milk. This album, as with the other two, is highly enjoyable and recommended.