Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.

Click cover art to view larger version
Track(s) taken from SIGCD321

Variations on Come un agnello, K460

composer
? June 1784; also K454a; the theme is from Sarti's Fra i due litiganti of 1782; six of the variations are probably by Sardi

Alessio Bax (piano)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
Recording details: June 2012
St Silas the Martyr, Kentish Town, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Anna Barry
Engineered by Mike Hatch & Brett Cox
Release date: January 2013
Total duration: 12 minutes 12 seconds

Cover artwork: Photograph of Alessio Bax by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
 

Reviews

'A bright radiance surrounds the outer movements, the first purposeful, the last almost a joyous 'hunting' finale, while the Larghetto, yearning in mood, finds Bax occasionally decorating his line' (Gramophone)

'Alessio Bax is joined by the Southbank Sinfonia in dynamic performances of Mozart's Piano Concertos No 24 and 27. The Italian-born pianist reaffirms his prize-winning credentials in a recording that comes highly recommended' (The Northern Echo)
Now largely forgotten, the Italian composer Giuseppe Sarti (1729-1802) was a leading figure in late 18th-century opera. Mozart met Sarti on the latter’s visit to Vienna in June 1784; he wrote to his father: 'Sarti is a good honest fellow! I have played a great deal to him and have composed variations on an air of his, which pleased him exceedingly.'

The tune for Mozart’s Variations on Come un agnello, K460, comes from Sarti’s opera Fra i due litiganti il terzo gode (While two dispute, the third enjoys). The plot of the opera, composed in 1782, resembles that of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (1786), with its Romantic high jinx among aristocrats and their servants. More importantly, ‘Come un agnello’ was sufficiently well known in its day for Mozart to famously quote it again three years later in Don Giovanni: it is the second of three popular tunes played during the supper scene (followed by 'Non più andrai' from Figaro).

As evidenced by the finale to his Piano Concerto in C minor, the variations form provided a potent vehicle for Mozart’s inexhaustible imagination; this set affirms the same. Mozart transforms Sarti’s straightforward melody over eight beguiling variations into something exceedingly pleasing indeed.

from notes by Patrick Castillo © 2012

Waiting for content to load...
Waiting for content to load...