Evgenia Rubinova’s 2006 EMI solo debut left the impression of a pianistically proficient yet musically shallow artist. Little has changed in the interim. Rubinova begins Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” sonata promisingly, launching into the first movement with complete technical assurance and linear cogency. Her firm yet flexible basic pulse may not reach Beethoven’s optimistic metronome marking, yet it nevertheless drives the music forward. The pianist articulates the fugal development section particularly well, and opts for the “inspired misprint” A-sharp in the upward sequence of alternating broken fifths and sixths that Schnabel, Arrau, Rosen, and Richter favor rather than the logical yet less interesting A-natural correction observed by Kempff and Brendel.
Despite strong fingerwork, the remaining movements miss the musical point. Rubinova imposes mincing ritards, provincial luftpauses, and sectionalized phrasings throughout the Scherzo, while the easygoing, genial surface style with which she (sort of) shapes the Adagio sostenuto is better suited to Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words. Rubinova miscalculates the Largo’s crucial accelerando, getting too fast too soon, while her generally loud, detached, and unvaried articulation in the fugue only lets up for the quiet yet sentimentalized D major section.
Rubinova rips through the Op. 109 first-movement arpeggios in a brusque manner similar to the old Wilhelm Backhaus recordings. While her Prestissimo has plenty of energy and verve, the similarly high-octane Charles Rosen, Annie Fischer, and Freddy Kempf readings pay greater heed to Beethoven’s alternating detached and sustained phrasing. Certain third-movement details further demonstrate how Rubinova puts pianistic matters ahead of musical considerations: her tapering of the theme’s opening phrase at the end of measure four, rather than observing the crescendo, or impatiently accelerating here and there in the first variation. A pity, because the knotty fifth variation’s decisive accentuation and thoughtful voice leading brilliantly reflect the contrapuntal writing’s punchy, woodwind-like nature.
While Rubinova has the potential to be a persuasive Beethoven stylist, recent versions of these works from Stewart Goodyear and Igor Levit, not to mention earlier reference editions, thoroughly outclass her largely unsatisfying efforts here.
