devellopment Archive

HAYDN: Piano Sonatas Not. 3l, 33, 47 & 58 – John O’Conor, p. – Steinway

by Audiophile Audition | Jan 9, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

John O’Conor deftly brings out the variety and infinite charm of five Haydn sonatas.  HAYDN: Piano Sonata No. 47 in b; Piano Sonata No. 38 in F Major; Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major; Piano Sonata No. 33 in c; Piano Sonata No. 58 in C Major – John O’Conor, p. – Steinway & Sons 30058, 69:51 (11/20/16) [Distr. by Naxos] ****: Irish piano virtuoso John O’Conor (b. 1947) has assembled a delectable group of five Haydn sonatas, composed 1767 and 1789, that display his thorough knowledge of keyboard technique and his infinite capacity for musical invention.  Each of the sonatas basks in any number of variations in the course of its development, a brilliant testimony to a musical imagination in ceaseless experiment with the instrument at hand and its ability to generate sensuous form. O’Conor opens with the 1776 Sonata in b minor, one of a set published as the composer’s Op. 14. While something of Scarlatti begins the procession, the writing becomes what one scholar, H.C. Robbins Landon, calls more “expressionistic.” Sojourns into major and minor modes alternate, all accompanied by O’Conor’s jeu perle tones on his chosen Steinway instrument. At several points, the bass tones resonate […]