Haochen Zhang dives into the first movement of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata at something close to the composer’s optimistically brisk metronome marking. He brings a pliable lightness and almost jazzy insouciance to the music that evokes memories of Peter Serkin’s reference-worthy and long out-of-print edition on Pro-Arte. Some listeners may feel that the impetuous accents and dynamic thrusts draw more attention to the pianist than to the composer, yet Zhang’s headlong momentum and contrapuntal astuteness cannot be denied. The pointed and playful Scherzo features delightful cross-rhythmic interplay in the Trio, followed by Zhang’s inhumanly smooth execution of the upward F major scale in both hands. While Zhang’s Adagio sostenuto doesn’t match Arrau, Perahia or Ugorskaja for nuanced depth, it’s a beautiful and poised reading all the same. Notwithstanding Zhang’s impressive finger independence and control in the fugal finale, the affetuoso gestures frankly hurt, especially those crudely distended final measures.
Similarly, the Liszt Sonata adds up to a mix of breathtakingly clear pianism and frustrating, self-serving mannerisms such as exaggerated articulation (the opening section’s mincingly detaché octaves), lurching rhythms, coy hesitations and reversed dynamics. In other words, the tricks stop the music in its tracks, which is not the case in comparably personalized, freewheeling Liszt Sonata traversals from Joseph Moog (Onyx), Lazar Berman (Melodiya), Simon Barere (APR) and Ernst Levy (Marston). Given Zhang’s brilliant Beethoven Concertos cycle and mostly excellent Liszt Transcendental Etudes, this beautifully engineered release should have been better.
