Roland Pöntinen - Schoenberg & Berg: Piano Music (2005)

Roland Pöntinen's warm, expansive tone, wide dynamic range, and steady yet flexible rhythmic sense paint Schoenberg's piano pieces in Brahmsian hues that the composer probably would have appreciated. Some of the pointillistic writing, to be sure, does not match the lightness and transluscence of Uchida in Op. 11 No. 1 or Pollini's more sharply etched Op. 25. However, Pöntinen trumps his competitors for the linear clarity with which he projects Op. 11 No. 3's gnarly polyphony.

Pöntinen's broadly paced, generously inflected Berg Sonata provides a convincing foil to the brisk orchestral sweep Naxos' Peter Hill offers, even if his tone isn't quite so beautiful on the surface as Uchida's. An unfinished sonata fragment by Berg plus two Schoenberg fragments make for interesting filler, although a larger representation of Schoenberg's table crumbs, so to speak, are available through Herbert Henck's meticulous but cool-headed Schoenberg cycle on Wergo. In short, Pöntinen differs enough from the reference Schoenberg cycles of Pollini and Jacobs to warrant serious consideration. [12/5/2005] -- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com