Don Satz recommeded the following Mozart sonatas:

>Concerning the piano sonatas, I'd recommend to a starter all of them
>with the exception of k 280 thru k 283.  If there's a desire to be more
>discriminating, k 331, 332, and 457 are my favorites.  In the non-sonata
>category there's a great Rondo (k 511) and Fantasia (k 475).

I can also particularly recommend K 310 in A minor, K 333 in B flat and K
576 in D. There is also a quasi-sonata in F major (K 533) of which the last
movement was composed at a different date from the others. I feel that last
movement doesn't fit the style of the other two, but the individual
movements have plenty to commend them.

 From memory, I think I'd second Don's recommendation of Uchida.
Her pianoforte style in Mozart can at first sound rather glassy and
Dresden-china, but she has a very strong rhythm and her phrases speak.
Especially good was a live recording of Mozart sonatas she made in Tokyo.

There is a celebrated recording of K310 by Lipatti, but for my taste it
was always a bit too classicistic and reserved for this highly pathetic
sonata.  However, I would not pass over it.  Apparently outstanding
(although I myself have yet to hear them) are some sonatas recorded by
Schnabel.  Other 'classic' accounts of individual sonatas that I can only
recommend by hearsay: Haskil and Landowska.  The latter is likely to be
especially fine.

One person whose sonatas I'd warn against: Maria Joao Pires - no sense of
rhythm or direction and the phrases aren't properly defined.  I personally
don't like Perahia, but among most people his reputation is very high.

(I mustn't forget the other works: there is also the late b minor adagio
and the Fantasy k 396? in c minor, and a very curious minuet in D - but I
haven't heard anyone play those.)

Felix Delbrueck
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