The young Beijing-based pianist Jin Ju came to international attention in October 2009 when she played an internationally telecast concert from the Vatican in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI, featuring seven period instruments. The instrument used on this SACD is, of course, the MDG label’s 1901 house Steinway, which boasts pronounced differences between registers and an attractive, slightly twangy timbre. This allows one to voice thick chords so that every note stands out in the mix, so to speak, such as in the introductory, fanfare-like diminished chords of the finale of Beethoven’s Appassionata sonata.
However, Ju’s playing promises more than it delivers. The Appassionata first movement can withstand Ju’s unbridled energy (her sudden speeding up of the loud alternating chords after the introduction), yet her well-unified tempo relationships in the Andante con moto come off sounding dutiful and stiff, due to an unwillingness to play as softly as Beethoven indicates. Ju’s clean left-hand articulation in the finale often conveys a square, typewriterish quality, but her sitting on the coda’s long chords à la Sviatoslav Richter doesn’t match the late Russian pianist’s febrile dynamism.
While it’s good to see pianists again take up Czerny’s glittery La Ricordanza years after Vladimir Horowitz “discovered” it, Ju’s competent, uneventful pianism can’t begin to match the late Alexis Weissenberg’s lightness, point, and sharply honed details. The Schubert C minor sonata’s outer movements, while technically shipshape, lack the intensity and demonic undertones we hear in more committed and involving traversals from disparate artists like Arrau, Richter, and the young Brendel (his amazing Vanguard version, not his Philips remakes), to say nothing of Pollini’s superior tension in the slow movement’s wild chromatic climax. Nor should you expect special charm or character from Ju’s foursquare, sing-song phrasing of the Menuetto. There’s no doubting Ju’s potential, but she’s still a work-in-progress.
