Comparative version of opp. 31,
no.2 and 53: Maurizio Pollini on DG 427
642-2
This is a notable addition
to Fazil Say’s slim discography for
Naïve, showing that it is quality
he’s interested in as an artist. Given
his many commitments as a solo artist,
chamber musician and composer it is
unsurprising that his recordings are
not more frequent.
The presentation of
three mid-period Beethoven sonatas -
though for some reason presented in
reverse order to composition - brings
Say into direct comparison with every
great pianist that set these works down
for posterity. But what I love - yes,
love – about his approach is that he
is unafraid of any of them. So assured
is his technique and interpretive skill
that he is more than equal to taking
on Beethoven on his own terms. Among
those terms I surely have to count being
a composer, as each work here smacks
of being heard through a composer’s
ears rather than just a pianist’s hands.
Appassionata sonata:
The evocation of hesitant shadows before
the stormy outburst is atmospherically
caught, but when the brief storm comes
you really feel it. Passagework is attacked
often savagely, but even where this
is not stated it remains implied. The
piano is recorded with ample fullness
of tone to represent the extremes to
which Beethoven pushed the instrument.
Unprepared listeners might be left reaching
for the volume control, but I could
not resist leaving it – perhaps a little
too loud – the roller-coaster ride of
emotions being too absorbing to care
otherwise. Anyhow, it seemed to fit
with Say’s robust and argumentative
conception of Beethoven the man as seen
through his music. The first movement,
being fairly driven both in terms of
tempo and tone benefits to a large extent
from the fact that moments of inner-looking
quiet register fully.
The central Andante
con moto builds impressively through
finely projected and clearly articulated
tone. Say’s playing leaves the trace
of music that means much to him, and
this comes through his careful yet not
over-studied sense of sonority, again
allowing contrasts to be fully registered
– the cloudy bass register with the
bell like clarity of the treble register.
The closing Allegro ma non troppo begins
with true agitation, as it should –
leading to a transition that is articulately
handled to give a real sense of perspective
to the movement’s development prior
to the return of the first subject,
full of punchy authority.
If the other two sonatas
are cut from much the same cloth interpretively,
and they are, I can see little wrong
in this. True, his interpretations of
opp. 31, no.2 and 53 might not have
Pollini’s individuality about them but
they are resolutely mid-period Beethoven
delivered with fire and enthusiasm allied
with strength of technique. It says
much for Fazil Say that where others
might power on and ride slipshod over
the details he takes care over them
without neglecting the structure he
works within. I found his finely wrought
chiaroscuro opening to the Waldstein’s
Allegro molto most sensitively handled,
yet what followed possessed a strength
that was apt and in place. The Tempest’s
strength and destructive power might
be slower to arrive with Say than Pollini,
but from the first it is there. His
way of using the natural pauses in the
written line gives the ensuing onslaught
all the more energy, which contrasts
with the Adagio’s poetry. The Allegretto
brings it all to a clean and crisp conclusion.
This is Beethoven with an edge from
an assured artist still in his ascendancy,
and it makes for a thrilling experience
that I shall return to often with pleasure.
Evan Dickerson
see also review
by Kevin Sutton
Fazil Say (piano) 
