Oleg Marshev hunts and pecks his way through the Schubert B-flat sonata’s first movement, with a mannered distension here, an arbitrary tenuto there, an outsized accent up ahead, plus too many telegraphed dynamic changes (such as bringing a crescendo to a climax way before Schubert says so), glossed over harmonic sublimities, and ill-judged balances between the hands. Needless to say, I didn’t miss the exposition repeat! Nor does Marshev maintain the slow movement’s haunting dotted ostinato figure with the metric and textural consistency that distinguishes performances by Richter, Fleisher, and Andsnes.
Clearer melody/accompaniment delineation would have added a few points to Marshev’s supple dispatch of the Scherzo, although it’s interesting that he plays the Trio at the same brisk tempo he chooses for the outer sections (many pianists slow down to varying degrees). The Finale’s rapid runs and knotty figurations sometimes fall prey to uneven articulation and, at loud moments, heavy-handedness.
There’s far more flow and continuity to the rhythmic freedom Marshev imposes upon the beginning and ending of the E-flat minor Klavierstücke. If the Second Klavierstücke’s turbulent middle seems inappropriately jaunty and upbeat, Marshev compensates by gorgeously spinning out the songlike outer sections. The pianist’s extroverted temperament particularly mates well with No. 3’s madcap rhythmic displacements and harmonic non-sequiturs. To sum up Marshev’s achievement, the Sonata’s essentially a lost cause, but the Klavierstücke are worth hearing, and perhaps (but just perhaps) owning.
