Keys to Mozart CD review – an odd selection from Dutch high-flyer

Daria van den Bercken (piano)
(Sony Classical)

What are the keys to Mozart? You could make a neat CD of movements in all the different keys he used, but on this disc the rising Dutch pianist Daria van den Bercken finds inspiration in Mozart’s operas, conceiving his piano music in vocal terms. It makes for an odd and unexplained selection, with three sonatas (K332, 282 and 331), the terrific C minor Fantasie K396 and the clever (almost) 12-note Eine kleine Gigue K574, plus an extra slow movement from K280. The loud playing is sharp and brittle, with some amusing messing around in the Rondo alla turca; the soft playing is rather milk-and-water. Van den Berken promises further instalments of this Mozart project, and given that she wowed the Netherlands by playing Handel outdoors on a piano suspended way above a crowd, we may be in for some surprises.