Evgeni Koroliov is such an interesting pianist that everything he records usually is worth hearing, and this disc is no exception. It is a very romantic conception of Haydn’s music, one that works best in the proto-Chopinesque Variations in F minor, certainly one of the more remarkable keyboard works of the classical period. Koroliov catches the funeral march character of its opening theme particularly well, with exquisite gradations of touch and tone that will keep you listening despite the subdued dynamic level. In short, it’s a performance both very beautiful and emotionally expressive. Both the G major and F major sonatas are lighter works, and Koroliov catches their playful qualities quite well. He also projects the humor of the great C major sonata’s finale very successfully–more subtly than usual, perhaps, but with an excellent sense of timing, and the diminuendo ending of the second-half repeat is delicious.
My only reservations concern the great C minor sonata, the performance of which has all of the qualities previously mentioned, but that would have benefited from a harder, more rhythmically punchy approach, or at least an interpretation with more edge and less Mozartian roundness of tone and gentility of phrasing. This is particularly true of the finale, a minuet in all but name, whose Sturm und Drang qualities emerge more successfully in some of the recent performances with fortepiano (such as Brautigam’s on BIS). It’s a very good performance nonetheless, particularly in the central andante, but there’s more angst here than Koroliov chooses to reveal. Despite this concern, I can recommend this very well-recorded disc enthusiastically because the sheer technical standard and musical intelligence at work are so outstandingly high.
