Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11
Víkingur Ólafsson
The Rondo alla Turca's mock-Ottoman percussion fantasy is the most famous movement, but Ólafsson approaches the complete Sonata No. 11 in A major as a unified statement rather than a delivery vehicle for a famous finale. The opening Andante grazioso theme and six variations is played with a conversational lightness, Ólafsson's ornaments neat and speech-like, the variations moving through character rather than simply through technical difficulty. The central Menuetto is given a quiet dignity that understands it as a hinge — neither the amiable opening nor the theatrical finale, but the turning point between them. By the time the Rondo alla Turca arrives, its theatrical contrast has been set up rather than simply delivered. Ólafsson's tempo is measured rather than fleet, which has the counterintuitive effect of making the piece sound more foreign and more rhythmically unusual — the Turkish percussion idiom Mozart was caricaturing is allowed to register rather than being blurred by speed. The cultural context of the piece in the 1780s — European fascination with Ottoman aesthetics, the alla turca craze in Viennese music — is made legible rather than obscured. Ólafsson sounds throughout like a musician translating from a language he has spoken so long it is now his own.
medium
2020s
light, crisp, dance-like
Austrian
Classical. Classical Period Piano Sonata. Playful, Theatrical. Moves through conversational amiability and dignified restraint before arriving at theatrical Ottoman fantasy, each movement prepared by what precedes it. energy 5. medium. danceability 5. valence 7. vocals: instrumental, speech-like, conversational, ornate, theatrical. production: solo piano, neat ornamentation, measured articulation, clean tone. texture: light, crisp, dance-like. acousticness 10. era: 2020s. Austrian. Ideal for a refined afternoon when attentive listening can reward the ear with more than background use ever would.