International sensation Federico Colli continues his personal exploration of the music of Mozart with this second volume of works for solo piano. Colli opens his programme with the Adagio in B minor, K540, from 1788, toward the end of Mozart’s short life. The only piece on the album not to involve variation form, this Adagio instead adopts sonata form, and is an extremely rare case in Mozart’s output of its chosen key. The two sets of variations that follow (from the seventeen sets that Mozart composed) use a similar approach in their method of constructing variations on the theme – ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ in the first instance, and Gluck’s smash hit ‘Les Hommes pieusement’ (or ‘Unser dummer Pöbel meint’) in the second. Colli concludes his programme with the rather extraordinary Sonata in A major, K311. Instead of the expected sonata form, the first movement is a theme with (six) variations. Following the second movement (a minuet and trio), Mozart finishes with a rondo – arguably one of his most famous pieces, the ‘Alla turca’.

‘It’s not a question of “liberties” taken: it’s about a kind of musical free-association, a grabbing of clues in the score which most pianists follow to the letter, but which Colli takes in both hands and runs with... His C minor K475 Fantasie is a journey through a craggy landscape full of beauty and mystery; the K396 Fantasie is wilfully discursive, but has powerful eloquence.’ – BBC Music (Vol.1, CHAN20233)

‘Federico Colli’s contribution, while never less than acutely alert to his colleagues, is a marvel of the most concentrated vitality. It is also never less than characterful... the sense of total harmony and integration among all four players is complete, and is particularly evident given Chandos’s superb sound’ – International Piano (Mozart - The Piano Quartets, CHAN20179)