Ron Chaplin wrote of the Mozart piano sonatas:

>The outer movements are bright, lively and inventive.  However, I find
>something missing in the slower second movements.  It's as if Mozart wrote
>them merely because they were obligatory.

Although I don't personally find anything missing from Mozart's slower
movements, I think I understand where Ron's coming from.  A few weeks ago,
I was doing a little comparison for Mozart's piano sonatas among Uchida
on Philips, Pommier on Virgin, and Lili Kraus on Sony.  I was a little
surprised to find that I uniformly preferred Kraus in the slow movements
over Uchida - more depth of emotion and sensational playing.  So, if Ron
has not heard Kraus performing those slow movements, there's a decent
possibility that his opinion of them might change through listening to
Kraus.

>I think Haydn wrote his sonatas with more emotion.  They are more serious
>than Mozart, although I do not think any work of Haydn could ever be
>without humor.  Again, I agree with Don in that these sonatas sound almost
>Romantic.

When I read "Romantic", I cringed a little.  I think I said they sounded
early-romantic, and my comment was meant as a compliment to Haydn.  I would
like to point out a distinction between Mozart's and Haydn's early sonatas
and their more mature offerings.  Both composers' early sonatas can't hold
a candle to the later ones - generally very simple, melodic development is
thin, etc.  With Haydn's last few sonatas, I think we witness masterful
compositions chock full of superb melodies excellently developed and simply
a style of composition beyond its time.  Although Mozart's later sonatas
are a big improvement over his earliest ones, they do not reach the high
level of Haydn's later sonatas.

>However, I like Schiff's playing of the Haydn more than his playing the
>Mozart; maybe because Schiff's style is more suited to Haydn;
>maybe because the Haydn recordings have a clearer sound.

It's certainly true that the sound for Schiff's Haydn is much better than
what Decca provided Schiff for Mozart.  Also, I tend to see Schiff as one
of those "music speaks for itself" artists, and as I mentioned, Haydn's
mature sonatas have more going for themselves than Mozart's.

>I wish I could express myself better.

I think Ron does fine.  There are plenty of times when I read back a
posting I already sent and wonder what the hell I was talking about.

Don Satz
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