All of the performances here are reissued on CD for the first time and largely testify to the late Bruce Hungerford’s persuasive powers as a Beethoven player. Not only does he bring out the little F major Op. 10 No. 2 sonata’s brash wit in the outer movements, but he also paces the rests with a sense of comic timing worthy of Victor Borge or Jack Benny. Tiny tempo fluctuations and stinging accents in the opening Presto of Op. 10 No. 3 ups the emotional ante without losing one iota of forward momentum. At first you might fear Hungerford’s astringent sonority is less than adequate to sustain the unusually slow pace he favors for the Largo e mesto, yet the movement miraculously hangs together.
In Hungerford’s hands, the Op. 27 No. 1 sonata earns its “quasi una fantasia” sobriquet with bonus points. Following a lyrical, understated Andante replete with supercharged allegro interruptions, Hungerford plays fast and furious with the Scherzo, speaking fluent “Schnabel-ese”. By contrast, his steady, anchoring left-hand work in the Adagio con espression provides a secure springboard from which the arietta-like right-hand lines truly take wing. He begins the Andante Favori slowly and severely, gaining subtle freedom as the music progresses.
To my taste, the “Funeral March” sonata’s opening variations proceed in too slow, severe, and unyielding a manner for the music’s underlying lyricism to come through. The Scherzo is clipped, monochrome, and surprisingly charmless, while the Funeral March proper casts a grim, austere, and rather inflexible shadow. While the finale’s fingerwork is solid and supple enough, I miss the qualities of light and shade that characterize Richter’s marvelous RCA recording. The little Op. 49 sonatas come off somewhat sober and unsmiling in relation to Stephen Kovacevich’s effortless simplicity (to say nothing of Schnabel), while the short pieces are elegantly understated. These are minor reservations in the face of this collection’s formidable strengths, and I look forward to the cycle’s final installment.
