The final instalments of Kristian Bezuidenhout’s Mozart survey are as stylish as the previous seven volumes: with his bold, sensitive playing, the South African is the leading fortepianist of his generation. He begins his eighth volume with the familiar Sonata in C major K545 – anyone who studied piano will remember it being hammered out in exams. But these volumes also feature obscurities such as the parody Kleiner Trauermarsch K453a and the single-movement fragments K312 and K400 in reconstructions by 20th-century fortepiano trailblazer Robert Levin. These last two pieces might be of limited appeal, but no matter: Bezuidenhout could find spirit in a C major scale. Articulation sparkles and ornaments are neat; slow movements sing like arias and he has fun giving weight to the Rondo themes; virtuosity buzzes under the surface but never becomes the focal point. On his modern keyboard – a Czech copy of an 1805 Viennese instrument – the sound is sweet, nutty and declamatory. Above all, Bezuidenhout knows how to make a fortepiano sing.
