It’s strange that,
while the outside world obstinately
typecasts Italian musicians as a generous-souled,
spontaneous if superficial bunch of
spaghetti-eaters, and can always call
on Big Luciano to prove their point,
as many Italians can be named who ply
their art with a solitary and watchful
perfectionism equal to that of any renaissance
goldsmith. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
was a supreme example among pianists
and if Maurizio Pollini has proved far
more professionally reliable – he has
not left a chain of broken engagements
behind him – his pianistic perfection
is scarcely inferior. There is a tendency
in England to look upon him as a chilly
technician – just as there is a tendency
in Italy to refuse to recognise that
he is indeed sometimes just that. The
present Beethoven record, part of a
complete cycle he is gradually building
up, generally finds him engaged – with
plenty of groans and grunts to prove
it – and never more so than in the Appassionata.
It goes without saying
that the letter of each sonata is rigorously
sculpted; dynamics, phrasing and pedalling
are just what the urtext says
they should be and the tempi – steadily
maintained – are always justifiable
interpretations of Beethoven’s markings.
The first movement of the Appassionata
is as awesome in its pianos as in its
fortes and the finale, rightly "allegro
ma non troppo" has a magnificent surge.
I wouldn’t call the "Andante con moto"
exactly inward – the sheer equality
of the semiquaver variations lends the
music a remoteness – but its cool expressiveness
is far from perfunctory.
It is where Beethoven
needs special pleading that Pollini’s
system of simply realising the score
perfectly fails to engage. Not that
special pleading is often required in
a Beethoven sonata but the first movement
of op. 54 – a work sometimes nicknamed
the "Dispassionata" – is one case and
if you have the idea that it alternates
bland minuet material with Czerny-style
studies in octaves, Pollini is unlikely
to convince you otherwise. The less
problematic finale goes with a fine
spin.
The tiny F sharp major
sonata is no mere sonatina but one of
Beethoven’s most perfect and subtle
works. Pollini captures beautifully
its first movement’s alternation between
gentle serenity and light-toned vitality
and if his finale is not actually witty
it has great exuberance.
The first movement
of op. 90 is another hard one to hold
together and Pollini’s steady-as-she-goes
approach evades rather than answers
the questions it poses. The long finale
has a gentle, heart-easing Schubertian
lyricism which might not have been expected
of this artist until relatively recently.
We also get – or you
will if you snap up the limited edition
which accompanies the first release
– live recordings of op. 78 and the
Appassionata from Pollini’s private
collection. With all respect, I wonder
what he wants to prove. If it is that
his legendary technique is unfazed by
the presence of a public, I think we
could have taken that as read. If it
is that his private equipment produces
less good sound than DG’s studio best
– acceptable though the former would
have been if we had been offered only
that – then this also might have been
taken for granted. If he wishes us to
hear him spontaneously communicating
with his live audience, then I beg to
suggest that there is precious little
in it. The Appassionata first movement
is as awesome in its fortes as the studio
one but – on account of its greater
impetuosity – less so in the pianos
and so ultimately less so in the fortes
as well. If studio performance of the
slow movement of this sonata is not
exactly the most humanely warm you’ve
ever heard it is not as mechanical as
the live one sometimes is either. The
first movement of op. 78, on the other
hand, concentrates on the gentle serenity
to the extent that the more vital movements
seem less than fully integrated. In
other words, the studio performances
achieve a finer equilibrium in both
cases. So why did he do it?
Well, Pollini was always
something of a polemicist, and a card-carrying
Communist for as long as Italian Communists
had cards to carry. He has never gone
in for live recordings the way some
of his colleagues have. Did he intend
some sort of anti-live-recording pamphlet?
Still, the main disc
will be around long after the limited
edition has sunk from view and with
at least two of the sonatas ranking
with the best this is a Beethoven disc
to acquire.
Christopher Howell
Maurizio Pollini (piano)