Fine as this well-recorded Beethoven disc sounds through two stereo speakers, it becomes more vivid and lifelike when experienced in its full SACD multi-channel glory. If only the performances were more interesting. To be sure, Mari Kodama is an extraordinarily accomplished young pianist who does not know the meaning of difficult. She can toss off the Appassionata’s hurling challenges without a hint of struggle, to say nothing of taxing rotary passages in the Waldstein’s Rondo. And the dreaded double notes in Les Adieux’s first movement go “like buttah”, so to speak. Musically, however, Kodama consistently gives short shrift to Beethoven’s dynamic extremes, while her rounded phrases and tiny tempo adjustments, though superficially attractive, have a pre-packaged, predictable air about them. Turn to Richard Goode’s similarly paced performances and you’ll hear a wealth of harmonic inflections and subtle shadings that infuse the music with far more character and drama than Kodama’a slick proficiency reveals. A colleague once likened one very famous pianist’s Beethoven to the “perfection” of waxed fruit, and that about sums up the situation here.
