The live performances on this disc stem from the 2009 International Van Cliburn Competition and feature the Silver Medal award winner, 23-year-old Yeol Eum Son. You don’t earn a top Cliburn prize unless you command an excellent technique, and Son’s super-capable fingers attest to this. Musically speaking, she’s most at home with the opening two selections. Although some listeners may find her brisk take on the Haydn C major’s Andante wanting in tenderness and warmth, the pianist’s rhythmic equilibrium and focused articulation silences criticism. Her deft handling of echoed phrases and ornaments winningly underscores the finale’s sparkle and humor.
Son’s driving, multi-layered treatment of the Barber sonata’s first movement does not hint at the gentler-than-usual yet extremely nuanced Scherzo to follow. She rightly treats the Adagio mesto’s passacaglia as an anchor upon which the aching lyrical material can float without fuss, while the Fuga finale builds with steady authority and full command.
The six Debussy Book 1 Préludes are a mixed bag. Le vent dans la plaine’s rapid figurations murmur without mystery, and the central climax falls flat. Son miscalculates Les collines d’Anacapri’s transitions and imposes superfluous rubatos and inverted dynamics that miss the playful point. While she successfully controls Des pas sur la neige’s fragile dynamics, the music cries out for more breadth and a steadier basic pulse. In Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest the west wind is crisp and dry, not wet and tumultuous, while La fille aux cheveux de lin is spacious and stretched-out to a fault.
All of the Godowsky paraphrase’s notes are solidly in place, yet the effortless foreground/background appropriation of inner voices, countermelodies, and filigree needed to make this idiom truly resonate is not yet part of Son’s artistic makeup. Still, it takes chutzpah to play Godowsky at competitions, and in this case the risk paid off handsomely. Sometimes it’s better to please a jury than a CD critic!
