Pianist Gil Sullivan returns to NativeDSD with Hidden Voices – Mozart Piano Sonatas: Volume IV. It his latest Pure DSD 256 recording and his 4th album in this series.

Sullivan says: “Having listened for over half a century to tens of thousands of recordings of Mozart’s music be it piano music, string quartets, symphonies, operas, et al. I have been hugely energised by these recordings not because they are so great, but because they are usually so terrible!

Any ten fingers of almost any pianist can play these relatively simple notes, that however require an altogether different pianist to metamorphose them into music. Since experiencing Mozart primarily as a youngster playing my first sonatas and concertos, I immediately felt there were deeper layers than just the melodic oil slick floating at the surface.

Therefore I have been steadfastly cutting away 200 years of accumulated varnish, and drilling down to the nub of Mozart’s music throughout my long career as a concert performer. The objective: lifting Mozart’s Sonatas out of the Egyptian section of museums and breathing new life into them.

Though not a fortepianist, I still adhere closer to his markings than most pianists, but also try to imagine how he might have played these sonatas on the modern Steinway. The subterranean, often chromatic voices and harmonies in Mozart’s music reveal him demonstrably as a composer far greater than merely a gifted melodist. This is why I have called this recording series of the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas – Hidden Voices.”

Gil Sullivan, Pianist (Steinway & Sons Model D Concert Grand Piano)