As the note-writer reminds us, everything here dates from Mozart's last decade. So the recital is a little gem—in content as also in the way it is played. The two really familiar works are of course the poignant A minor Rondo and the nobly tragic B minor Adagio of 1787 and 1788, both minor masterpieces in their own right. But I wonder how many people know that extraordi nary little Minuet in D of 1790, with its audacious harmonic daring, or even the teasingly cunning Gigue of the previous year? It's also invaluable to have the F major Andante for mechanical organ and the C major Adagio for glass harmonica on the same disc; their Elysian purity is all the more affecting in the knowledge that both date from the composer's very last spring of 1791. And it was a splendid idea to frame the programme with the innocent Ah, vous dirai-je, maman Variations (now up-dated on the evidence of handwriting from 1778 to 1781–2) and the more ingeniously devised and harmonically exploratory Unser dummer Pobel meint set of two years later.
The most notable characteristic of Schiff's playing throughout is its classical simplicity. He achieves great potency of characterization without ever stepping out of Mozart's own century. True, he never tries to pretend that his instrument is anything other than a modern grand piano. Yet however bold his dynamic contrasts or orchestral his variety of colour, always there is perfect transparency of texture. Nor is sentiment ever allowed to become too romantically subjective—and incidentally, in this context I noted much firmer rhythmic discipline than I've sometimes encountered from him in earlier recordings of Mozart's sonatas. Needless to say no point of contrapuntal cunning goes unheeded. And there is no such thing as 'passage-work'. Every note has a life of its own, even in the most unassuming Alberti accompaniments. For me, the most moving memories of the recital are of simpler things in major keys, notably the two pieces of 1791, also the K265 Variations which he plays with such limpid imaginative freshness. The recording (made in The Mozartsaal of the Vienna Konzerthaus) brings the piano right into your room. It can't be over-praised.'