BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1; Piano Sonata in A Major, Op. 2, No. 2; Piano Sonata in C Major, Op. 2, No. 3 – Mari Kodama, piano – PentaTone

 

Recordings from the Netherlands (April 2008) of the first set of published Beethoven piano sonatas (1795) by Mari Kodama, who seems intent on inscribing the entire sequence to disc on her shiny, brilliant-toned Steinway D-274. Ms. Kodama brings a canny, graceful style to these early–though iconoclastic–works of Beethoven, a graded, assiduous sense of rhythm and tempered dynamics. Suave, even feline, progressions mark her applications of color, say in the Menuetto of the F Minor Sonata. The unhurried and angular figures point to Haydn and Mozart at once, although the sudden furies and harmonic audacities of the last movement signal something new for music. The constant percussion of the main, rhythmic impulse proves, in turn, brittle and plastic, the merger of sonata and rondo proceeding in muscular periods. The cascading, pungent coda bespeaks a Beethoven acolyte of intense, intellectual and digital power.


The A Major Sonata makes an immediate departure from the F Minor’s terse gloom, providing a bright, virtuosic patina, classical procedures softened by a sly humor. Kodama’s pearly play evidences itself, even as the quick non-harmonic notes glide, the delicate, quicksilver runs and brisk staccati contrast with loving, rolled arpeggios. Nice sonic separation of the treble and bass elements in the Kodama’s sound, courtesy of balance engineer Jean-Marie Geijsen. The Larghetto proceeds as a dirge-like andante repeated thrice–curiously presaging routes adopted by Chopin–buffeted by tender but troubled trills. The acoustic resonance of this movement proves an audiophile’s test document for solo piano recording. The Scherzo trips and sings, a light-hearted relief from the pathos of the slow movement. Its trio in G-sharp Major again hints at progressions the later Beethoven will exploit with even more irreverence. The graceful Rondo (Grazioso) maintains a plastic poise and galant affect that capture our fancy, our appreciation of Beethoven’s mastery of Mozart’s lyrico-dramatic heritage.

The largest of the Opus 2 set, the C Major, must have quite astonished its dedicatee, Haydn. The entire scale has advanced to a concerto’s stature, likely the Mozart K. 503. The alternation of quick, truncated figures and polished, elongated, melodic phrases anticipates the later Hammerklavier Sonata, though here the galant impulses reign over the strictly virtuosic clamor. A cadenza and trill end the first period and the movement’s coda. The writing in the high register elicits a luminosity not to be denied. The tissue just prior to the recap could be taken from the Waldstein Sonata. The E Major Adagio, a tripartite lied, allows Kodama a pathos of personal expression entirely intimate, surrounded by an intense quiet. The Scherzo and expansive Allegro (assai) extend the idea of the young Beethoven as a singing virtuoso who enjoys playing off the various colors of his keyboard palette, for which Ms. Kodama’s talents appear elegantly suited.

–Gary Lemco