COMPOSERS: Mozart
LABELS: Ondine
WORKS: Suite in C, KV 399; Sonata Movement in G minor, KV 312; Prelude and Fugue in C, KV 394; Andante in F, KV 616; Allegro in B Flat, KV 400 (completed M Stadler); Variations on ‘Unser Dummer Pöbel Meint’; Variations on ‘Ah Vous Dirai-je, Maman’
PERFORMER: Anastasia Injushina (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: ODE 1250-2
Among the lesser-known Mozart items in Anastasia Injushina’s enterprising selection is the hauntingly beautiful Andante in F major, K616, composed just a few months before Mozart’s death, and intended for a mechanical organ. Two further items – an unfinished Suite (K399) and a Prelude and Fugue (K394) – date from 1782, the year in which Mozart made his excited discovery of Bach and Handel. Injushina underplays the Handelian grandeur of the Suite’s slow opening section, and her keenness to bring out the expressive depth of the Allemande leads to a decidedly wayward performance. But there’s impressive pianism elsewhere: the two sets of variations, in particular, are imaginatively handled, and played with admirable keyboard suppleness.
Also valuable are two incomplete sonata movements (which were rounded off in straightforward fashion after Mozart’s death), though the first of them, in the composer’s characteristically agitated G minor vein, finds Injushina just a touch reticent. If only she could overcome her general reluctance to play in a forthright manner, she would undoubtedly be a Mozart pianist to be reckoned with.
Misha Donat