Sebastian Knauer
The Mozart/Nyman Concert
(Modern Recordings)

GERMAN pianist Sebastian Knauer’s career spans more than three decades since his debut at the age of 14 at the Laeiszhalle concert hall in his home town Hamburg. He has performed in more than 50 countries with a varied and extensive repertoire.

Currently that’s reflected in more than 20 CD recordings, including Beethoven Rarities for DG, Haydn, Barber and Mendelssohn. He performed all 27 Mozart piano concertos and all Hayden concertos with the Hamburg Philharmonic and the Bamberg Symphony, leading both orchestras from the piano.   

For his 50th birthday project in 2021, The Mozart/Nyman Concert, Knauer chose to perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Michael Nyman, commissioning the latter to write six new piano compositions for him, in the style on Mozart.  

Knauer conceived of the album as a new and modern piano recital approach, believing that the soundscapes of the 18th and 21st centuries can be interwoven.

The album opens up with Mozart’s Sonata C-Major K 545 I Allegro. A bristling well paced introduction setting the scene for Nyman’s K1. A brooding dramatic modern burst of colourful rhythmic cascading chords, with understated melodic intent. Played with silky smooth dexterity and dramatic interpretation.

Mozart’s C-Major K 330 11 Andante cantabile, a delicate light composition, delivered with the deftest of touches, rhythm realised at highest level, with pulsing subtle intent in the bass lines. Nyman’s K2 ups a constant tempo, delivering further drive and gifted bass arpeggio progressions and arcing high tone melodies.

Mozart’s unique rhythmic dynamic and melodic beauty is further highlighted on Sonata F Major K 332 111 Allegro assai. Knauer clearly relishing the extraordinary keyboard range to be covered. Nyman’s K3 offers a sparser, mid-paced, mid-range tonal stability, filled with ornamentation,

The tempo slows up for Mozart’s Fantasy C-Minor K 475, full of moody brooding emotion. Nyman’s K6’s winding lines vary in tempo giving a modern, film noir urban flavour, that Mozart would surely have approved of.

Setting up for the album’s climatic finish, Mozart’s 12 Variations C-Major K 265.  A deceptive instantly recognisable simple tune used in a nursery rhyme, explored here in varying rhythmic dynamics.  

Recorded on a Steinway D Grand at the Teldex Studio, Berlin, across three days days in January 2021 the sound is both warm and rich. The transitions between both composers are fluid, with an overall successful listening experience, making the connection between antiquity and modernity with much conviction. Mozart’s music embodies clarity, precision and transparency, qualities that have influenced Nyman.