BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE (Instrumental Choice, October 2007):
Mozart’s huge output includes a number of works that for various different reasons were left in an incomplete state at the time of his death. The best-known, of course, are the Requiem and the Mass in C minor, but as this fascinating and beautifully recorded disc demonstrates, his output of keyboard music contains much of substance that unfortunately survives in a fragmentary state.

Pianist Anthony Goldstone has done a sterling job in realising, reconstructing and completing these fragments, as well as performing them with great musical sensitivity. The most famous example here is the D minor Fantasy, where Goldstone’s conclusion, which returns to the opening brooding arpeggios, seems far more convincing and compositionally satisfying that any other alternatives. Likewise, the improvisatory Präludium in C major, which binds together two separate fragments, sounds extremely cogent and stylistically idiomatic.

A more controversial ploy is Goldstone’s realisation of two complete piano sonatas assembled form movements that were not necessarily intended to be performed together. Although purists will no doubt object to Goldstone’s idea of transcribing the G major Variations for Piano Duet so as to form the Finale of the “G minor Sonata”, that will be to ignore the fact that Mozart himself was perfectly prepared to adopt this strategy if it suited his purposes.
Performance ××××× Sound ×××××
Erik Levi

INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW:
When welcoming “On Reflection”, the CD of Mozart music for two pianos played by Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow (reviewed in March 2007), I little thought that I should so soon be reviewing a Mozart recital for solo keyboard, all the pieces completed and/or realised by Goldstone. This programme is quite fascinating, with its inclusion of isolated movements, almost all of which were more or less fully sketched and then shelved by Mozart. Some of these pieces may sound familiar; all of them , even the briefest, are of great interest.

Goldstone places before the listener two full Sonatas, one in F major, the other in G minor, constructed from fragments that he sensed could be persuaded to belong together in a convincing way. A Praeludium and some dances (not played consecutively here) suggest a Baroque suite; two extended sonata fragments are in this form well able to stand as independent movements, and there is a thoughtful, profound Fantasia in D minor, K385g/K397, probably dating from around 1782. Mozart left a substantial 107 bars of the work. Completion has been essayed in the past by many hands; here the challenge is very successfully met by Goldstone. As good an example as any of his skill at entering Mozart’s mind is the F major Sonata he has conjured into being, formed from fragments of disparate origins and perhaps of date too, that he spins out in a manner to convince this listener at least that the whole exercise was thoroughly worthwhile; it provides real satisfaction – doubtless for the player as well as for an initially perhaps sceptical audience, and even more for the arranger himself.

Much the same can be said about the other works performed here. Long immersion in Mozart’s unfinished compositions for keyboard has enabled Goldstone to feel the potential of the relationship between fragmentary movements in the same or related key that might once have been intended to belong together. The G minor Sonata he has fashioned goes further, in having as finale an extensive remodelling of the Theme and Variations in G major, K502. for piano duet. It works.

A major benefit to the issue is the detailed and highly informative essay that Julian Rushton has written for the booklet. He is perceptive in all he says about the Mozart fragments, their likely date and purpose and the way they have been treated by Goldstone for presentation here. The only additional information I would have welcomed is of the printed (or even manuscript) sources of some of the more recondite pieces.

The playing is unfailingly thoughtful, undemonstrative, observant of the varying stylistic demands. Tempos are convincingly chosen, though in rapid movements passages with the smallest note values are sometimes smudged. Slow movements are poised, by turns lyrical, poignant or more dramatic, and the music in dance meters is neatly phrased. The recordings, which were made in a church acoustic, entirely lack the often encountered drawbacks of such a location; the sound is fresh, clear and free of the excessive resonance familiar from numerous recordings made in empty churches. This is a fascinating and significant issue.
Peter Branscombe

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE:
The provocative title of this recording is “Unheard Mozart”. Unheard, of course, until now. Think of the effective completion of Elgar's Symphony 3 by Anthony Payne; what Goldstone has done falls along similar lines, without any necessity to orchestrate.

Reflecting on that old adage that if it walks like a duck etc., Goldstone has taken on himself the completion of several items Mozart never finished. Until we enter the great beyond and have a direct opportunity of speaking with the composer (through a universal translator) we will never know how close Goldstone has come to what Mozart actually wanted. For the time being, these are pretty good, stylistically correct, and will make sense to any but the most priggish Mozart enthusiasts.

The scholarly notes by Mozart style authority Julian Rushton puts each piece realized, completed, and performed by Goldstone in context. Lacking the time to study the fragments and sketches in the Neue Mozart Ausgabe, I can only take Rushton at his word. Whether my compositional skills would have brought forth the same results as Goldstone's can only be determined by travelling the 30 miles to a university that has the NMA. It is a project that will tempt me in the future.

Of the works realised by Goldstone, the largest, by far, are the Sonata in F and the Sonata in G minor. Each is in three movements, and each goes far beyond mere mimicry. The structures are clear, and the invention (Where does Mozart leave off?) highly creative in terms of melody, rhythm, and harmony – all in the context of Mozartean style. Sonata in F is the better of the better of the two, but the one in G minor is entertaining enough in a more simplistic way. Since no sketches exist for a finale, Goldstone has abridged and reordered the variation set for piano duet, K. 501. Those taken in by the absurdities of Schubert's (?) so-called Symphony in E “1825” that appeared some 15 years ago will find none of that nonsense here. Goldstone has approached his tasks as a highly cultivated and seriously motivated musician whose credentials include some recordings of insight and imagination.

The Allegro, K. 400, runs about ten minutes and has been completed with reasonable aplomb, as has the well-known fantasy in D minor, K. 397, which is given a new and surprising ending (the familiar one had been tacked on by one of the composer's posthumous editors).

All the remaining pieces are very brief and totally entertaining, With very good sound and entertaining and delightful Mozart and pseudo-Mozart this may be purchased with confidence, unless the very idea annoys you.
Becker

STIRLING NEWS and other regional UK press:
Pianist Goldstone recently set himself the daunting task of completing a series of Mozart piano works that the composer himself has left unfinished for a variety of reasons, and the fruits of his labours are gathered together here.

The Sonatas in F major and G minor dominate proceedings, and their presence alone should make this CD an essential purchase for everyone who has even been captivated by Mozart’s unique musical genius, albeit one that’s been given a helping hand here and there by Anthony Goldstone on this occasion.
Peter Spaull

NOTTINGHAM EVENING POST:
British pianist Goldstone has already completed and recorded unfinished pieces by Schubert, as well as sketches for two pianos by Mozart. Now he turns to Mozart’s incomplete works fro piano solo, including a couple of three-movement sonatas. These works are mostly projects of Mozart’s maturity and the musical gaps have been filled with fragments from the same period.

An Allegro in B flat takes its nickname “Sophie and Constanze” from Mozart’s sister-in-law and wife respectively – whose names the composer inscribed over phrases in his score. This fragment was finished by another hand for the modern Mozart Edition. Goldstone, however, harks back to the sisters’ phrases in his conclusion. In the case of a Prelude in C, he had to supply not the ending but the beginning. There are also dance movements, such as a jig and a sarabande.

All the material is restored with love, style and skill. ××××
“PP”

GRAMOPHONE:
Anthony Goldstone has no inhibitions about “Unheard Mozart”, piano pieces that have been unheard because Mozart hadn’t completed them. Goldstone has developed and expanded beginnings or fragments that, in the words of Julian Rushton, had been “put away in the certainty that if the need arose he could finish them later; what was already written, the exposition of ideas, would act as a mnemonic”.

Finishing Mozart needn’t be a sacrilegious act, as may be heard in the small pieces, particularly the Praeludium in C major. Doubts surface about the large forms, the Sonatas in F major and G minor. Goldstone’s editions are prolix, burdened by padding that deflects attention. Nor is his playing – matter-of-fact in the Minuet K34 and Gigue in C minor – always sympathetic to his best creative efforts. When it is, as in the Fantasia K397 with his own ending, he makes for very absorbing listening. But the unevenness of inspiration in Mozart’s uncompleted material suggests that if some ideas could act as a mnemonic, others might simply have been abandoned because they had not reached the standards he expected of himself.
Nalen Anthoni