Following his excellent Haydn and Mozart fortepiano recordings for BIS, Ronald Brautigam turns his attention to the first volume of a projected cycle devoted to Beethoven’s complete piano music. The playing is riveting. Brautigam draws out the “Pathetique” sonata’s first-movement introduction with plenty of rhetorical emphasis yet keeps the dotted rhythms in sharp focus. Once the first movement proper begins, Brautigam maintains the intensity with rolling paragraphs shaped through cannily calculated accelerandos that always draw attention to the music rather than to the performer. I’m also struck how the fortepiano’s buzzing timbre imparts a driving, almost rock-and-roll quality to the left hand’s broken octaves. Surely Beethoven would have understood, and approved! Similar controlled freedom governs the slow movement, where Brautigam balances the right-hand melody and gently swinging left-hand accompaniment as if they were two seasoned chamber musicians playing off of each other. The finale’s relaxed eloquence and feathery fingerwork are almost shattered by the vehemence Brautigam brings to the final measures–quite a payoff!
There’s nothing small-scaled concerning Brautigam’s equally involving interpretations of the relatively slighter Op. 14 sonatas. I especially like his faster-than-usual basic tempo for the G major sonata’s slow movement, and the bracing continuity from one variation to the next. In this context, the third and final movement sounds relatively sedate and cameo-like, rather than biting and angular. Those who maintain that the fortepiano cannot approximate an orchestra should go directly to Op. 22’s first movement, where Brautigam’s full-bodied octave playing and effective scaling of the “Rossini” crescendo just before the recapitulation make a formidable impact. Also notice the sensitive harmonic pointing and veiled tonal quality Brautigam obtains in the slow movement’s softer passages (I assume he’s using the una corda pedal). Following a wisp of a Minuetto, the Rondo’s graceful major theme and vehement central minor episode are wonderfully contrasted and characterized. Whether in SACD surround-sound or conventional two-channel stereo playback modes, the engineering is up to BIS’ highest standards. As you’ve probably gathered by now, few Beethoven cycles have gotten off to such an auspicious start. [11/02/2004]
