Alban Berg’s single-movement Op. 1 Piano Sonata certainly doesn’t lack for excellent recordings. However, Allison Brewster Franzetti’s impassioned and persuasive performance easily holds its own in the select company of Gould, Perahia, Aimard, and Uchida. The music’s rhetorical disquiet totally justifies the organic ebb and flow engendered by Franzetti’s tempo fluctuations. At the same time, she brings colorful textural diversity and character to Berg’s complex polyphony, to the effect that even the development section’s gnarly climaxes ring out with utter clarity.
To some ears the overly resonant sonics might seem too plush to suit the Hindemith Second Sonata’s lean, astringent keyboard writing, thereby diminishing the biting, woodwind-like flavor the composer often implies. Still, in Franzetti’s hands, the Scherzo gains welcome warmth and lilt, while the third movement’s slow introduction retains its solemnity without dragging. I find the Hartmann sonata’s unadventurous rhythmic trajectory and not-quite-tonal/not-quite-dissonant harmonic language rather grey and charmless, notwithstanding the obvious care and commitment with which Franzetti imbues every bar.
Expose the three 1894 Schoenberg pieces to your music loving friends in a blind listening test. They’re guaranteed to tear their hair out trying to identify just who concocted this ersatz Beethoven/Brahms/Dvorak stew. At least it benefits from Franzetti’s full-bodied, generous interpretation. All told, a fascinating and worthwhile release. [4/17/2008]
