Mozart Mozart Recital – Gigue in G major, K474 ‘Eine kleine Gigue’; 12 Contredanses for Count Czernin (Nos 1, 2, 3 & 12), K269b; Sonata No 9 in D major, K311; Sonata No. 12 in F major, K332 Su Yeon Kim (piano) Steinway STNS30211 68:35 mins
In 2021, Su Yeon Kim won the Concours Musical International de Montréal. Recording this album was part of her prize. Yet it’s the listener who is the real winner here. The South Korean pianist’s playing is a joy, and this album, which is simply titled Mozart Recital, reveals her as a Mozartian through and through.
It’s a beautifully constructed programme, full of contrasts: serious, playful, extrovert, introspective, dancing, operatic. On the one hand, there’s the rustic joy of four of the 12 Contredanses for Count Czernin; on the other, the sombre profundity of the Adagio in B minor. The very first piece, the quirky Kleine Gigue in G, barely sounds like Mozart at all. Its subject darts all over the place, like a Bach fugue on fast forward, and Kim captures its quicksilver essence. Rare gems like this are a sign, too, that this album has been put together with great thought.
In her booklet introduction, Kim writes that she subscribes to pianist Artur Schnabel’s wisdom that the sonatas are ‘too easy for children and too difficult for artists’. Yet she reconciles that paradox here in two sonatas, Nos 9 and 12. Supple phrasing, sparkling fingerwork, natural tempos: Kim’s playing delights and illuminates. Does Liszt’s transcription of Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, rather more resonantly recorded than everything else, feel like an unexpected lurch into the 19th century? Perhaps – but it is also a heartfelt way to end what really is a winning debut.
Rebecca Franks
