Recorded in June 2022, this Schubert disc documents Maurizio Pollini’s final visit to the recording studio. He broaches the first movement of the composer’s G Major Sonata impatiently and tersely, sometimes to the point of rushing through phrases or shortchanging final beats of certain bars. This applies to all four movements, whether overpedaling in the Menuetto, or plowing through the Allegretto finale in a perfunctory manner. To be sure, the 80-year-old pianist has no trouble with the notes, but his loud, texturally undifferentiated and charmless music making suggests little of the music’s unfettered lyricism. For the record, he observes the first movement exposition repeat.
By contrast, his son Daniele brings impeccable rhythmic control and well judged timing to the Moments Musicaux, if not the pearly touch and vocally-oriented imagination one hears from Radu Lupu, Maria João Pires or Clifford Curzon. Father and son join forces in the F Minor Fantasia. At first I listened without knowing who was playing primo and who was playing secondo. In the Largo section, I noticed the primo player’s incisive dotted rhythms and beautifully contoured trills alongside less assertive secondo. Sure enough, Daniele was taking care of the treble, with Pollini pére in the bass. The Allegro vivace takes sophisticated wing, with both pianists equally balanced., but the fugal Finale finds them getting too loud too soon, pounding out the climaxes just before the main theme returns in the Coda. In all, a bittersweet memento.
