Beethoven Pianosonates Nrs 31-32 (2007)/ Stephen Kovacevich

Deze pianist geeft 27-03-10 een recital in het Muziekcentrum, Enschede. "Superb sound helps Kovacevich pack a pianistic punch. For starters, his tone acquires greater heft, sustaining power and colour, thanks in part to the richly detailed 5.1 surround-sound. To be sure, sudden fortes and accents still retain a lean, hard-hitting quality entirely in keeping with the jagged inner rhythms of Op 110s Scherzo and the scurrying passagework in Op 111s first movement. His face appears to move in parallel lines to the music, as he keeps his arms and hands relatively close to the keyboard, negotiating leaps, cross-handed passages, and thicker polyphonic stretches with the utmost in physical economy. Director Andy Sommers visual style imaginatively yet unobtrusively cross-cuts between facial and/or finger close-ups and wider-angle shots. The intimate ambience and enthusiastic audience response inspire a handful of relaxed Beethoven Bagatelles and Schubert Ländler for encores." (Jed Distler, Gramophone)