After a sumptuous recital which brought together impromptus by Frédéric Chopin and Gabriel Fauré (Impromptus, naïve, V7860), the pianist Ismaël Margain continues his musical explorations in the realm of the small form, this time the rondo and the fantasy.
And for this new journey, as poetic as it is inventive, Ismaël Margain returns to one of his favourite composers: Mozart, whose inexhaustible and singular power he glorifies with the immense refinement of his playing.
Beyond the constantly renewed melodic inventiveness, all the works on this album form a fascinating kaleidoscope of Mozartian moods. If the Rondos, strongly characterised, reveal relatively homogeneous atmospheres, the Fantasias, notably K. 397 and K. 475, offer a kaleidoscope of ever-shifting moods and atmospheres, conferring them a definitely theatrical tone. In these quasi-improvisations, many characters come to life. The opera, the stage, permeate the discourse everywhere.
Interpreting Mozart on a modern piano raises several historical, aesthetic and instrumental questions. Ismaël Margain has been playing Mozart from a young age, and this album marks the culmination of a prolonged time of reflection. This was a necessary period of gestation, which enabled him to find his freedom, after having rigorously informed himself, assimilating the style – the styles! – and integrating the many notions related to articulation, ornaments or tempos, together with questions related to the use of the pedal.
Now thirty-two, Margain offers us his Mozartian freedom, that of a subtle balance between historical-musicological considerations and a sheer delight in expressing himself at the instrument. Yes, most certainly, the restless child of Salzburg would enjoy today’s piano and its innumerable dynamic and expressive possibilities.
Ismaël Margain exalts the inexhaustible imagination which so often stimulated the pen of the author of The Marriage of Figaro. In this miracle that constitutes Mozart’s creation, a true living mystery that he was able to fathom in contact with the quintessential Mozartian player that is Maria João Pires, the French pianist eagerly examines the contrasts, draws the lines with precision, embellishes the textures with new reliefs; he gets to the bottom of emotions to better highlight their diversity.
