Purcell & Mozart (CD)

In 2023, Sokolov performed around 70 concerts playing music by Purcell and Mozart, always supplemented by five or six encores. This album combines two performances that took place in Spain. In the first half Sokolov combines three suites and six other pieces by Purcell into an uninterrupted cycle. They are complemented by Mozart’s Piano Sonata in B flat major, K.333 and the Adagio in B minor, K.540, followed by a suite of encores by Rameau, Chopin and J.S. Bach/Siloti.

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What do Purcell and Mozart have in common – the grounds, tunes, and dances of the English Baroque composer and the piano works from the Viennese Classical period? A lot, when played by Grigory Sokolov, especially in terms of seemingly childlike charm and melancholy. Already in Purcell’s Ground in Gamut, the pianist dissolves the structure of the variation over an ostinato bass with gentle accentuation and his acclaimed trill technique, while still getting to the bottom of things. Nothing in life is trivial, and every sound is a jewel – provided one listens carefully.

Ever since Sokolov said goodbye to orchestral and chamber concerts as well as studio recordings, he has concentrated exclusively on solo recitals, and annually tours Europe performing a single program. The dimmed lights, the somewhat peculiar entrances and exits of the anti-star, and the stocky figure at the Steinway grand piano playing with utmost concentration are all elements of Sokolov’s cult status, and his concerts have become gatherings for the pilgrimage of his fans.

Grigory Sokolov is a master of detail. The nuanced, balanced touch in the Almand of Purcell’s Suite in G minor, the soft, versatile staccato, the feverish mordents in the Saraband, the clarity of the upper voice, and the transparency of the musical lines would hardly be possible on a harpsichord. Purcell on the Steinway: this is the only way for Sokolov to develop his subtle expression and precisely measured dynamics arising from the very heart of the pieces, while still eliciting the impression of bagpipes and dazzling trumpet-like sounds from the piano.

TRACK LIST

PURCELL:
A Ground in Gamut, Z. 645
Suite No. 2 in G minor, Z. 661
Suite No. 4 in A minor, Z. 663
Suite No. 7 in D minor, Z. 668
Chaconne in G minor, ZT 680

MOZART:
Piano Sonata No. 13 in B flat major K. 333
Adagio in B minor K. 540

RAMEAU:
Les sauvages [Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin, Suite in G Major, RCT 6]
Tambourin [Suite in E minor, RCT 2]

CHOPIN:
Prelude in D flat major “Raindrop”, op. 28/15
Mazurka No. 40 in F minor, op. 63/2

J.S. BACH:
Prelude in E minor, BWV 855 (arr. in B minor by Alexander Siloti)

ARTISTS
Grigory Sokolov, piano