Hyacinthe Jadin: Complete Sonatas for Fortepiano

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One of the great losses in music history, as most people are aware, was the premature death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. But few are aware that music suffered another loss perhaps as great: the death of Hyacinthe Jadin in 1800 at the age of only 24. From the music he left, had he fulfilled even a part of his promise, he would have been a giant. As it is, on the basis of the music we do have, he deserves to be considered one of the finest composers of the classical era after the big four (Haydn Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert). Classical aficionados can be grateful for Richard Fuller’s splendid recording of the complete piano sonatas of Hyacinthe Jadin. They are works of genius; surprisingly so, with a fertility of invention, a richness of complexity that are all the more astonishing when one considers how very young Jadin was, and how isolated (in the aftermath of the French Revolution) he was from the newest developments from the music abroad. This set is a foundation item in the discography of the High Classical Period, and deepest gratitude to Richard Fuller for making it! - J.P Marmano

W. A. Mozart: Klavierwerke I, II u. III

DOWNLOAD or STREAM Klavierwerke I

DOWNLOAD or STREAM Klavierwerke II

DOWNLOAD or STREAM Klavierwerke III

I was not particularly prepared to like this release, largely because I seem to have a blind (deaf?) spot regarding the sound of the instrument involved, the fortepiano. Too often, for me, the sound of the fortepiano sounds perilously close to that of a toy piano tinkling away when what I'd prefer is the strong sound of the modern pianoforte. Still, listening to this CD I was charmed by the sound which is actually quite appealing without being quaint. That is to say, there is strength to the tone even though one would never mistake it for that of a modern Steinway. But more important is the playing of Richard Fuller. Fuller is an American fortepianist and clavichordist who specializes in the music of the Viennese Classical and early Romantic periods. He ably demonstrates the wide range of expression and dynamic of the fortepiano, adding discreet ornaments and lightly elaborated cadences as presumably Mozart himself or other late 18th-century instrumentalists would have done. The result of both his approach and the sound of the instrument is that these sonatas which, in the words of Anthony Newman, are 'miniaturized' when played on a modern grand piano, emerge as subtle but strong works. Even the first sonata -- the ever-familiar Sonata in C, K.545 -- is heard as the potent work it truly is, not the miniature as performed by beginning piano students. The performances of the four sonatas, plus the fine Fantasy in D Minor -- one of Mozart's towering keyboard works -- are both light and intense. Don't ask me how Fuller manages that seeming contradiction. This recording was originally made and released on an obscure German label. It and two subsequent Fuller Mozart Klavierwerk CDs were remastered and re-released by Palatine Records of Portland, Oregon. They‘re well worth hearing. (F.Scott Morrison) 

Joseph Haydn: Claviersonaten 1776-1780 (''Auenbrugger'')

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With the three great groups of piano sonatas - 1773, 1776, and 1780 -  Haydn had developed at once an intimate yet sophisticated musical form and establihed himself as the leading composer of piano sonatas with whom none, with perhaps the exception of Mozart, could compete.  If one disregards the last two sonatas of this group (G-Major and c-minor) the so-called "Auenbrugger" sonatas are considerable further along the way toward a bonafide fortepiano style than the earlier cycles. Exemplary are the two sonatas in C-Major and c-sharp minor. They are again designed to be a contrasting pair, but their structure is at once much more richly and subtly shaped. 

No coincidence here that both sonatas are really among the few which have continued to enjoy a measure of popularity in current concert life.