For François-Frédéric
Guy, the Hammerklavier is, ‘the guiding
thread of my artistic quest and the centre of gravity around
which my repertoire is structured’ (taken
from the booklet for the present CD). Guy has played this
work over sixty times in public and even boasts a previous
recording (1997, Harmonia Mundi). He is aware that the present
one might not be his final effort, either!
My last encounter with this pianist - in Brahms in 2004 -
left me decidedly underwhelmed (see review).
I am not sure Guy’s Beethoven is sufficiently convincing
to change my ideas although there are more positives here
than previously. The recording is clear yet there is a very
slightly soft, almost felty feel to the opening of the ‘Hammerklavier’ (the
producer/engineer/editor was Laure Casenave-Péré).
The Hammerklavier actually improves as it progresses.
Guy loses momentum in the first movement - around 6:20 especially
- and overall there is little of the excitement that Pollini
(DG) generates. The second movement, too, is rather clunky
and clumsy; Gilels on DG is perhaps supreme here. It is only
with the great ‘Adagio sostenuto’ that Guy raises his game.
This is very interior playing and if there remain carps -
chording at around 1:38 is not exactly together, for example
- at least the stillness at the heart of the music is there.
The infamous fugal finale is technically fine, exuding a
Bachian care and clarity. Yet the placatory passage around
8:37 ff loses its effect. There is a large list of
fine Hammerklaviers. This version does not join them,
alas.
The Pathétique begins well - it actually starts the
disc - heavy and full of import. If much of the Allegro is
merely good rather than anything special, it has to be conceded
that the return of the Grave emerges as a masterstroke.
As if to continue this rather strange mix of the fine with
the commonplace, the famous Adagio cantabile is blessed with
a fine singing melody counterbalanced by a thoroughly mundane
accompaniment. The finale is Guy’s best Beethoven so far,
light and fleet - is he making a deliberate link to Mozart
here? - and goes some way towards redeeming the Sonata. It
certainly takes this performance marginally above the one
on Pentatone by Mischa
Dichter – recently reviewed by me.
Finally, the G minor Sonata, Op. 19 No. 1. The first movement
is marked ‘Andante’ and Guy seems to want to place it next
to Haydn. The delicacy is really quite appealing, as is the
staccato touch he finds for the finale. It is not enough
to redeem a disc that in the main makes me ask why a company
as intelligent as Naïve is so fully behind an artist who
seems to be nothing special?
Colin Clarke
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François-Frédéric
Guy (piano) 
