Album

American pianist David Korevaar offers his own booklet notes in this ambitious group of three Beethoven piano sonatas, two of them late ones. He goes into quite a bit of detail about the structures of these works and their derivations from earlier pieces, Beethoven's or otherwise. Korevaar stresses the principle of contrast, and the same is true of his playing: his interpretations are all over the range of dynamics without being particularly dramatic. His tempos are on the slow side, and he likes to linger caressingly over figuration in lyrical passages, turning up the intensity in louder music. In the Piano Sonata No. 28, Op. 101, the weight goes to the final fugue after the three rather unsettled opening movements, giving it an ecstatic quality that points toward the final works of Beethoven's career rather than the Entschlossenheit (resolve) he specified. There is a good deal of detail in Korevaar's playing. The slight disjunctions between the hands that form the central question of the first movement of the Piano Sonata No. 16 in G major, Op. 31/1, are beautifully done and turn the movement as a whole into a thrill ride of the sort Beethoven must have intended. Korevaar's attempt to fill in his big dynamic frames with lots of detail gets away with him at times; the finale of Op. 31/1, is pushed in a way that's hard to understand for what is essentially an innocent little dance, and the big, cosmic variation finale of the Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111, portentously prepared by a heavy, brooding opening movement, tends at times to collapse under its own weight after the variation in which syncopations explode as though Beethoven were some jazzman of the future, breaking through the walls of time. Korevaar acknowledges the influence of one of his mentors, Earl Wild, and whatever questions one may have about individual aspects of Korevaar's interpretations, it is nice to hear a younger pianist carry forward something of the monumental Lisztian sweep of Wild's Beethoven.

© James Manheim, Rovi

CD 1
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer Piano Sonata No.28 in A, Op.101 Work 20:58 David Korevaar Piano
1	1.Etwas lebhaft und mit der innigsten Empfindung (Allegretto ma non troppo)	3:57			$0.99
2	2.Lebhaft, marschmäßig (Vivace alla marcia)	5:55			$0.99
3	3.Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll (Adagio ma non troppo, con affetto)	2:41			$0.99
4	4.Geschwind, doch nicht zu sehr, und mit Entschlossenheit (Allegro)	8:25			$1.49
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer Piano Sonata No.16 in G, Op.31, No.1 Work 26:23 David Korevaar Piano
5	1.Allegro vivace	6:47			$0.99
6	2.Adagio grazioso	12:59			$1.99
7	3.Rondo: Allegretto	6:37			$0.99
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer Piano Sonata No.32 in C-, Op.111 Work 29:04 David Korevaar Piano
8	1.Maestoso: Allegro con brio ed appassionato	9:00			$1.49
9	2.Arietta: Adagio molto semplice e cantabile (Theme and Variations)	20:04			$3.49