A large-scaled, imaginatively phrased, virile account of the “Pathétique” sonata begins the second double-CD installment of David Allen Wehr’s Beethoven cycle. With little help from the sustain pedal, Wehr’s sharp accents, hair-trigger dynamics, and incidental inflections vivify the outer movements’ dramatic mood swings. The central Andante cantabile is not too fast, not too slow, and is as heartfelt and flexible as the finest performances on disc. The Op. 14 sonatas also are well paced and characterfully judged. However, I question the pianist’s slight pause before each of the No. 1 finale’s subito pianos, and would prefer a nimbler, more biting Scherzo in No. 2. The latter critique also stands for Op. 28’s Allegro vivace, although Wehr’s marvelous legato touch elsewhere again mostly results from fingers rather than feet.
Wehr brilliantly conveys Op. 22’s Rossini-like lightness and sly humor. The Menuetto is brisk and uncommonly curt, where the highly profiled left-hand accompaniment suggests a plausible Glenn Gould rendition (Gould’s incomplete recording of the sonata remains unreleased). Yet unlike Gould’s rabble-rousing Op. 78, the heavier-gaited, slightly square traversal here falls short of Wehr’s best work.
Linear clarity and rigorous tempo relationships cast an intellectual hue on Op. 26’s opening variation movement, in contrast to Ronald Brautigam’s antipodal, more improvisatory approach. The Funeral March makes a fleeter, less grim impression than you’d expect, while Wehr’s steady sobriety and carefully differentiated articulation impart a kind of symphonic gravitas to the Allegro finale that we rarely encounter. Both Op. 27 sonatas stand out for the pianist’s controlled freedom in the opening movements.
If Op. 79 isn’t quite so angular and playful on the level of Artur Schnabel or Richard Goode, Wehr’s attention to detail and inner sense of the music proves more satisfying than, say, Paul Lewis’ tensionless, prettified playing. The Yamaha CF111S grand’s glassy high registers may not be to everyone’s taste, yet it’s clearly an imposing, gorgeously regulated instrument. How will Wehr fare in the great middle-period sonatas? Stay tuned for Volume 3; I know I will.
