Mozart complete piano sonatas recordings

Hello,

My name is Gil Sullivan. I have been an international concert pianist for over 40 years. It hasn't always been an easy life, with many, many! sacrifices; sometimes only a small number of concerts in a given year, so a great deal of financial instability, uncertainty, deprivation, and even a few periods on unemployment benefits. However, one certainly does not enter this profession with a view to becoming rich.

The profits however are its immense professional and artistic rewards. One of my greatest moments was moving an entire audience (including myself) to tears once, playing Beethoven's last sonata in South Carolina.

Another, to be invited to perform in New York's Carnegie Hall, not once, but twice! The second time was because, following my first performance in 2007, the New York audiences, for years after, hounded the Carnegie Hall people to invite me back! For those who don't know about Carnegie Hall, it is the greatest concert hall in the world, in the heart of New York city, and the very peak of Mt. Everest for all musicians around the world. It's acoustics are truly the stuff of legends, while more importantly, also making an invitation to play there, the equivalent in the professional music world to winning Olympic gold, or a world title in some sporting event. But when our athletes win gold, everyone hears about it, and often big-time, lucrative sponsorship quickly follows! When a musician, or anyone in the Arts "wins gold", no one hears about it outside their industry, and there is definitely no sponsorships of any kind to follow!

Since my early teens, I have been performing Mozart's piano music. Even at such an early age, I was fully cognizant of its uniqueness not only as great music, but that which required a very deep insight and understanding. It only takes a 10 fingers to play these simple notes on the piano, but to turn those notes into great music....! This requires an entirely different kind of musician, and this is where I have bent my life's passion and pursuits.

I am proud to report, I have been constantly acknowledged around the world for my Mozart playing. Just 3 quotes - a German newspaper - The Darmstadter Echo - once described me as "the finest interpreter of Mozart in the world", while in Frankfurt - "Mozart, to whom Gil Sullivan is completely devoted, expectedly was a big focus of the night, in the large concert hall in which very few chairs remained empty." In the United States, the New York Concert Review said, "Mr. Sullivan gave more than ample proof that his sterling reputation as an interpreter of Mozart is truly well deserved. He offered a performance that explored the depths of one of Mozart’s most profound piano works with restrained, careful rendering and especial attention to matters of tone and phrasing."

It has been a long-held dream of mine to record all 20 of Mozart's Piano Sonatas, to which end, I have been writing to recording companies for almost a decade. I feel I have something very special to bring to these sonatas, as opposed to the usual way they are played, in a characterless, colourless, and merely "tuneful" way, missing all their depth and greatness. There is so much beneath the pretty tunes in all Mozart's music, but which tragically finds itself subjugated to the "accompaniment" department. For well over a century, Mozart's music has become institutionalised - the victim of calcified traditions and customs, to the point where performers and audiences alike don't even really listen to this music; they simply let it flow over them, or play it as a kind of blancmange. The spirit, energy and musical ebullience, not to mention his genius for chromatic colours, his wholly unique and peerless harmonic twists and turns, plus his frequently unpredictable, but utterly logical voice-leading, are entirely overlooked, rendering his music almost pedestrian, even jejune.

I will challenge this style of playing head on! One should see the whites of Mozart's eyes in a great performance of his music. After 40 years of research, experimentation, studying and listening, poring over many books, and over all 614 of his extant letters, not to mention tens of thousands of practise hours, and performing every sonata over 50 years, some, many dozens of times around the world, I feel ready to document them onto disc. To this end, I have been writing to recording companies across the globe to record these 20 sonatas, which would fill around 6 CDs, so it is a huge project. Many companies were only interested in 1 CD, while a company in Houston Texas made an offer, only to then - year after year - "put me on hold".

Two companies are genuinely interested and ready to begin later this year/early next year. However, not being a huge international name in the world of classical music like Perahia, Barenboim, Lang Lang et al, they can't afford to take the financial risk on such a big project with someone who won't, overnight, sell thousands. But I am utterly convinced, over time, they will sell, as I believe people will recognise the inherent value of my interpretations, but it all means I have to pay for the recordings myself.

One company in Amsterdam is extremely expensive, and completely out of my financial reach. The total project would cost around AUD$100,000, even though their recording qualities would be about the best in the world, and would certainly future-proof my recordings as downloads for many decades to come. They would also market these recordings on around 70 different sites.

The other recording company in Budapest will only cost around AUD$40,000, and this is what I am hoping to raise. The recordings begin in December 2022, where we hope to have 2 CDs released by January 2023. There will be more recordings in the middle of next year, then hopefully have recorded all the sonatas by early/mid 2024. The studio cost is €400 per day, plus €50 each day for piano tuning. Our first session in December will be over 7 days, thus totalling €3,150. On top of this, there will of course be accommodation and airfare costs.

Therefore, for the entire project (from beginning to end) of AUD$40,000 is essentially to cover the cost of the recording sessions, artwork for the CDs, piano tunings, airfares and accommodation.

Now, I realise this is not raising money for Ukraine, or bushfire/flood relief. On the other hand, artists like myself have - for centuries - been struggling, very often stressfully leaning their shoulder against the wind every minute of their lives, so yes, this is not a cry for immediate help, as with Ukraine. This is however an age-old "cry for help" for artists who have devoted almost their very existence to their Art, but have neither been discovered, acknowledged, or found any fortune from their industry, but have persevered and fought on persistently, regardless!! Sometimes they have something very special to say, but popular tastes and dictums have pariahed them. However, Art is not about popularity, but truth!

In conclusion, in the event you would like to peruse my playing and existing recordings, there are many downloads to be purchased at a very minimal cost on the MUSIC page of my website www.gilsullivan.com.au which I warmly invite you to browse through, or my Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmfTvw2Rw30HyEjpSo5RzZw/videos

I implore you to get behind this project, and truly take it to heart.

With my kindest thanks for any support you can offer......

Gil Sullivan