Mitsuko Uchida - Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 28 & 29 (2007)

It's hard to pin down Mitsuko Uchida's performances of Beethoven's A major Sonata, Op. 101, and B flat major "Hammerklavier" Sonata, Op. 106. Of course, there's no debating her sparkling tone or dazzling technique. Since her first recordings in the mid-'80s, Uchida's pianistic mastery has always been amply evident. What's debatable is Uchida's artistic temperament. She is sometimes intimately lyrical as in the opening "Etwas lebhaft" of the A major Sonata and sometimes immensely monumental as in the opening movement of the B flat major Sonata. She can march irresistibly forward in the central "Lebhaft" of the A major or linger to contemplate the profundities of the central Adagio sostenuto of the B flat major Sonata. She may bend the bar lines at times in her B flat major Sonata's impetuous Assai vivace Scherzo, ignore them altogether in her A major Sonata's passionate "Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll," or hammer them home with fingers of steel in her B flat major Sonata's fugal finale. For some listeners, these contradictions may resolve themselves in Uchida's fiery and poetic sensibility; for others, her interpretations may seem willful and perhaps even arbitrary. But whatever one ultimately thinks of her artistic personality, there's no denying the overwhelming power of Uchida's performances, and at least while the disc is playing, her Beethoven sonatas are wholly persuasive. Recorded in spring 2007 in La Salle de Musique, Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, by producer Everett Porter and engineer Sebastian Stein, the sound, the very touch and feel, of Uchida's piano is palpable.