- Main performer:
Petronel Malan - Booklet languages: German, English
- Time: 74:02
- Release Date: 2005
Review
"Transfigured Mozart?" Yes, indeed, transfigured Mozart. Eschewing either original works or the best-known arrangements, South African pianist Petronel Malan has chosen transcriptions which radically transform, nay, transfigure Mozart's music. From Johann Nepomuk Hummel's brilliantly post-Classical "Fantasina on a theme of Figaro" through Sigismund Thalberg's austerely reverential "Larcrimose tiré du Requiem de Mozart" to Reger's massively virtuostic "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by W. A. Mozart" -- the theme, by the way, is Mozart's theme for the set of variations that open his famous A major Piano Sonata -- Malan has unearthed works which allow us to hear Mozart with wholly new ears. And in every case, Malan performs them with commanding technique -- no easy thing in Reger's gnarly fugue -- comprehensive tone (everything from the most hushed pianissimo to the thickest textures sings with full-throated ease), and unstinting generosity; Joachim Raff's "Souvenirs de Don Giovanni" may not be the greatest music ever composed but you'd never know it from Malan's sympathetic performance. Released in the Mozart year of 2006, "Transfigured Mozart" will be a relief to those who already have enough recordings of the standard Mozart repertoire and a delight to those who cherish great piano playing.Hänssler's recording of Malan's sweet-toned Blüthner grand is the next best thing to sitting next to her on the bench. ~ James Leonard, All Music Guide
