Schnabel is legendary. I learned his name early in my musical studies but have seldom had the occasion to enjoy his playing. Many a piano student has benefitted from his edition of the Beethoven sonatas.

This recording has a startling dynamic range and delicacy to it. The unaccompanied piano phrases, the tails of which are played pianissimo, are quite daring for this old format which was beset with such a limited dynamic capability. This is not a performance governed by calculated cerebriality, but rather there seems to be a sense of a sweet savoring and prolonging of the profound simplicity and purity of this music. Yes, there is generous rubato, including the able accompaniment led by Barbirolli, then in his mid-thirties and about to take on a seven-year role leading the New York Philharmonic. But the greater grace here is from Schnabel, whose perfectly shaped phrases exceed that of the otherwise decent orchestral playing. One wonders if Barbirolli had the advantage of modern session playback, instead of the old direct-to-disc terrors, if he would have shaped the orchestra more. Or, perhaps he found it excessive and was determined to not fully match Schnabel's sensitivities!

Andrew has done a lovely restoration here. These performances don't often get their due because the technology (or lack thereof) gets in the way of the music, either because the discs themselves are such a load of work to handle, or because the noise and lo-fi mono sound is such an adjustment to our modern ears. While anyone demanding DVD-Audio quality for everything they hear need not apply, the rest of us can benefit from Andrew's finely tuned engineering, which minimizes the limitations of the old discs and brings the music nicely forward. No more side changes (nor evidence of them, which is very impressive)! No more pops, crackles, and cracked discs! If you're looking for source "purity," a la Pearl Records' raw and full-ranged noisy disc sound, be warned that these are restorations and not simply transfers. A great deal of surface noise and other "intrusions" have been carefully reduced, and frequency balances no doubt have been carefully refined. Further, I'll give away a dirty secret: there is a subtle amount of short-length ambiance added to this Mozart recording, though by no means is all of the ambiance on it.

This begs the question of whether this kind of process serves the music or creates something derivative. Ultimately that is something for each listener to determine, and thanks to Andrew's generous previews, can be readily answered. For me this functions as a restoration should: not altering the artistic direction of the performance, but delivering it clearly to the listener.

Reviewer: Anon

Find out more:

CD covers to print:

CD-writing cuesheet: [What's that?]

FLAC downloads use lossless compression - when replayed or transferred to disc they are bit- identical to original recordings.

16 BIT files are at full CD resolution, identical to our CD masters.

24 BIT files are at higher, studio master resolution, identical to our finished master files.

Please ensure you can play our 24 bit FLAC files before purchase - try our test files here.

Not all media players support FLAC yet, so you may need to convert to WAV or AIFF before playback. See our FLAC help guide

FLAC downloads come as a series of tracks in a ZIP archive file.

Our MP3 files are encoded at very high variable bitrates using the LAME encoder or at a constant rate of 320kbps.

Each recording is presented as a single, long MP3 which can be split using the CUE sheet at the bottom of the page, adding track titles and other information.

CD writing programs such as Nero and Burrrn can write these files directly to CD with all track information added using MP3+CUE - see our tutorial

Alternatively a cue splitter program can automatically cut and name the MP3 into individual MP3 tracks

There are also media players which use the MP3+CUE system, allowing gapless playback of all long MP3 files - essential for opera and many other classical works

Save money when you buy several downloads together by using the following discount codes in the shopping cart:

Buy 5 or more - save 10%:
Code: 85187052

Buy 10 or more - save 20%:
Code: 12W07104

How To Use: Once you've made your selections, copy the correct code into the space marked Discount or Coupon Code in your shopping cart, then click the Update Cart button to apply the discount before heading to the checkout.

N.B. These discounts apply to all our FLAC and MP3 downloads only. Discounts do not apply to CD purchases

Our CDs are made to order on highest quality Taiyo Yuden Watershield CD-R discs, recorded directly from our master files

CDs are shipped worldwide by Air Mail from France. The price here includes all shipping costs - there are no hidden extras

Standard and Premium CDs hold the same quality of audio - the Standard CD comes in a slip case with no covers, the Premium comes in a jewel case with printed covers

Each music page has PDF covers for printing out at home

They can be found by clicking on cover artwork or scrolling to the bottom of the page

Always deselect any resizing options in the print dialogue of Adobe Reader before printing to ensure correct cover sizes

All payments are processed by PayPal, one of the world's biggest and most reliable global online payment services

You can pay by credit card directly with PayPal acting merely as a secure card payment processing facility

You can use a PayPal account for quicker, easier and totally secure payments

We do not recommend using the e-check option for download purchases as there is always a delay of 3-4 working days between purchase and receipt of goods while the check clears

Payments are charged in Euros and will be converted from other currencies at the current PayPal exchange rate