FRANZ XAVER MOZART, who studied with Salieri and Hummel, was a composer-pianist like his father, Wolfgang Amadeus, but inevitably laboured under the weight of huge expectation. This album contains his largest work for solo piano, the Piano Sonata in G major – an assured, distinctive piece that balances dance with drive. His most virtuosic work is the exuberant Fantasy on a Russian Song and a Krakowiak, while his mischievous Variations on a Russian Theme and the variations on his father’s Don Giovanni illustrate Franz Xaver’s great gifts for elaboration and playfulness. Robert Markham, who has conducted research into the life and music of Franz Xaver Mozart, has been hailed as a performer of ‘astonishing lucidity and coherence’ by Musical Opinion.
Works:
• Mozart, F X: Sonata in G major, Op. 10
•Mozart, F X: Variations on a Russian Theme in G Minor, Op. 20
•Mozart, F X: Fantasy on the Russian Song Tchem tebya ya ogortshila and a Krakowiak in A Major, FXWM VII:30
•Mozart, F X: Variations on a Minuet from the First Finale of W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni in F Major, Op. 2
•Mozart, F X: Variations on a Russian Theme in G Minor, Op. 20