Adalberto Maria Riva returns with more Woelfl

Pianist Adalberto Maria Riva returns with more engaging piano sonatas by Joseph Woelfl. Woelfl was a friend of the Mozarts and a colleague of Beethoven. The two appeared occasionally together in piano battles in the early 1800s.

Keep that relationship in mind when you play this release. The very first movement of the very first work on the album sounded very familiar. 

Woelfl published his Op. 6 set of three sonatas in 1798. The opening to his Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 6 sounds very much like the "Moonlight" sonata -- which Beethoven composed three years later.

Woelfl's opening is similar, but he doesn't take it in the same direction as Beethoven. Rather, the music has a lighter, more elegant Mozartian resolution. Still, it's a great way to start an album. 

The two other Op. 6 sonatas lean even further into the Mozart camp. That's not to say they're derivative. Woelfl simply uses the piano techniques of the day to support his own melodies -- and they work quite well. 

Much different is his Piano Sonata in D major, Op. 58. Written in 1811, it has a thicker texture and much fuller sound. And yet there's a lightness to the music that suggests Woelfl didn't have Beethoven's fire. Stylistically, I'd place Woelfl somewhere between Ferdinand Ries and Muzio Clementi.

Riva performs with dexterity and charm. His light touch adds to the elegance of Woelfl's music. Nis nuanced phrasing also gives the music its emotional depth. 

I hope there's a third volume. Woelfl gives us a hint of what Mozart might have written, and an alternative to what Beethoven did. 

Joseph Woelfl: Piano Music, Volume Two
Adalberto Maria Riva, piano
Toccata Classics