This is the first of a set of the complete Mozart piano sonatas. I have admired Patrick Cohen in the past (if rarely without some reservations) and certainly there is a lot on this disc that shows an uncommon sensibility, although I rather think that the later sonatas may respond better to his style than these earliest ones. Cohen reacts generously to what you might call every ‘interpretable’ juncture in the music with some modification of the rhythm, with the result that no real rhythmic flow is ever established in most of the movements. Take for example the finale of K280, in 3/8 metre: here there is a four-bar phrase, fairly detached, piano, followed by a four-bar semiquaver passage, forte; Cohen makes a tiny, wafer-thin rhythmic break between them, which perhaps makes an expressive point but certainly destroys the rhythmic momentum and the natural flow of the music.
The minuet rhythm of the middle movement of K282 never gets moving. The First Sonata, K279, seems very jerky. It is possible to read all these rhythmic niceties as expressive, almost impetuous reactions to the text, but after a while (not a very long while) they begin to seem mannered and awkward. The triple metre of the opening movement of K280, which usually implies a sturdy rhythm in performance, is held up by numerous mini-hesitancies. At times one feels that Cohen is unwilling (or unable) to play two bars in strict rhythm, and at times he doesn’t seem too eager, either, to play any two notes at the same volume. Mozart did in fact sprinkle these sonatas pretty generously with forte and piano indications, although Cohen’s understanding of their placing is often somewhat different from my own reading of the autographs.
The use of rubato in Mozart is of course a much-discussed issue, and we have the composer’s own clear view on it, set out in a letter – he says that the left hand should keep uniform time while the right may diverge briefly; I don’t think that is what Cohen does, however. Some movements nevertheless come off quite effectively, especially the slower ones: in the Andante of K279 he makes good sense of the liberal and sometimes surprisingly dynamic markings, and in the slow movements of K281 and particularly K282 the music gives little opportunity for indulgence in rubato. The instrument used here is a Walter (Mozart’s preferred make) of about 1790, which comes through very full, clear and resonant in the recording. '