I'm admittedly not the biggest Mozart fan — I don't have much of an ear for anything before Mendelssohn really — but I've been listening to more of him and this sonata is one of my favourites. It's dramatic, it's striking, it's terse. Mozart is at his best in the minor keys.
But... dear lord, the second movement, what a downer. In Sokolov's performance on Youtube, the second movement takes 10 minutes. Pires takes 9 minutes. Baremboim, who plays everything quickly, zips through it in 8 minutes.
Everyone* seems to agree the tempo should 30-35 bpm, with a performance lasting 8+ minutes, usually about half the total runtime.
However... Mozart himself gave the tempo indication
Andante cantabile con espressione. Andante should be at *least* 70 bpm (and even faster with espresso). That means that the typical performance, at 35 bpm, is less than
half the speed that Mozart indicated! Not even my grandmother walks that slowly.
My question is: why? Why do all the top pianists play this movement so damn slowly? Where did the tradition of ignoring *Andante* and playing *Gravissimo* originate? I've tried playing passages at 70 bpm and it sounds much better. A bit crowded in places admittedly, but the melody is so much nicer when it's not being stretched out to a snail's place.
* notable exception, Glenn Gould, who has a very interesting recording. He absolutely rushes through every movement, the second clocks in at 48 bpm (still slow!).