Known as a punchy concertmaster from his harpsichord, the young and surprising Maxim Emelyanychev, conductor since the age of 12, is also an accomplished soloist who won numerous international awards – among them the prestigious Golden Mask, a prestigious Russian prize, for his participation in Teodor Currentzis’s Marriage of Figaro. For his first solo album, he once again recorded Mozart. The famous Sonatas nos.14, 16 and 18 (K.457, 545 and 576) recorded here with a grave Fantasy, bear witness to Mozart’s musical maturity that sounds like pre-Beethoven. The agile and clear phrasing of Maxim Emelyanychev on the pianoforte weaves a dramatic strength and displays delicate ornaments. The liveliness, the talent of this gifted performer spontaneously evokes the ruffled and awesome Mozart as sketched by Milos Forman in Amadeus.