Josep Colom & Javier Laso: Mozart & Schubert
Eudora

Every performance, live or studio, has its imperfections, but they're magnified all the more in the case of four-hand piano renditions if any miscue in synchronicity arises. That makes listening to these stellar renditions of Mozart and Schubert by the esteemed Spanish pianists Josep Colom and Javier Laso so satisfying. The material they perform entices, but its impact is exponentially heightened when two such refined practitioners of the piano art form share the keyboard. Even more impressively, the two adopted a riskier approach in weaving improvisational ornamentations into the performances, a move that demands an even greater degree of synchronicity. While such an approach leaves little room for error, you'd be hard pressed to find ones of any glaring sort in this set.

The decision to incorporate improvisation wasn't arbitrary, incidentally, but originated out of the fact that it was common during the time the Austrian composers were creating. It's also something that comes naturally to Laso, who spent his musical childhood practicing and improvising with his father (whose own mother was a concert pianist and taught him to play) and learned what he considers the most important lesson, that “music is something more than the score—it's a living creature and so needs to undergo constant change.”

Years separate the pianists—Colom born in Barcelona in 1947 and Laso in Fribourg (Switzerland) in 1975—but their visions seamlessly align in these performances. Though Colom plays regularly with Spanish orchestras, he feels most comfortable in the world of recital and chamber music, something he attributes to his reserved and introverted temperament. Like Colom, Laso has given countless solo recitals and appeared with chamber ensembles and orchestras and issued a number of recordings. Despite the age difference, the two perform here as equals, no one dominating the other and both acting in humble service to the music.

Playing side by side, the two open themselves rapturously to these four-hand pieces and allow the music to flow through them, and the pooling of their artistic energies is such that we hear Mozart's Sonata in C major, K. 521 and Andante with Variations in G major, K. 501 and Schubert's Fantasy in F minor, op. 103, D. 940 and the Duo in A minor, op. Posth. 144, D. 947, “Lebenssturme” with fresh ears. As anticipated, a panorama of emotions emerges over the course of the album, with ecstasy, love, longing, and weariness all addressed at different times. A pleasing balance between the composers is effected when each is represented by one multi-movement work and a standalone.

Recorded in April 2024 in Spain and performed on a 1957 Model D Steinway & Sons piano that resonates with glorious clarity, the release begins with Mozart's three-part Sonata in C major, its effervescent “Allegro” sparkling with an uplifting, playful glow. Even at this early juncture, it's clear that the pianists are locked in and executing with remarkable dexterity. The first movement segues without pause into the rhapsodic second, an “Andante” delivered with exquisite sensitivity to pacing, flow, and touch. The opening part's beguiling theme reappears to get the “Allegretto” third on its way, after which the pianists deliver an elaborate series of variations on the melody. Speaking of which, the second Mozart setting, his Andante with Variations in G major, charms as powerfully in offering crisp, wide-ranging treatments of its radiant theme. As their hands dance across the keyboard with authority, the pianists demonstrate an undeniable connection to Mozart 234 years after his passing.

“Lebenssturme" translates as “the storms of life,” and certainly Schubert's twelve-minute setting is tempestuous—though hardly one-dimensional. After starting on a grandiose note, the work shows its Schubertian colours by alternating between majestic block chords and the composer's signature heartache. As with their Mozart interpretations, Colom and Laso prove themselves to be just as conversant with Schubert's sensibility and comfortable inhabiting his musical world. The Duo in A minor sets an effective stage for the sixty-eight-minute set's final piece, the four-part Fantasy in F minor, which begins not with an animated allegro but a melancholy expression emblematic of the composer. Without pause, the lyrical “Largo” follows, the movement brief but not without impact, before the robust “Allegro vivace - Con delicatezza” imbues the work with lively radiance. It seems fitting, however, that the work should end with a prototypical Schubertian expression, the “Tempo primo” a poetic reverie and dynamic statement of no small appeal.

December 2025