Yingdi Sun’s Liszt Sonata interpretation is a collection of sensitive moments and miscalculations. The pianist frequently lessens the impact of climaxes in the following ways: anticipating ritards, cheating loud dynamics of their full value, and breaking his hands (playing the left hand ahead of the right). Sun’s rhythmic fidgeting also dissipates the natural flow and momentum of important themes, to say nothing of how he miscounts during the exposition’s notorious octave sequence. At the same time, the second subject and the introspective section prior to the Fughetta transpire with shaded nuance and fluidity. I suspect that Sun is more comfortable as a lyrical player than a dramatist; his relaxed, poetic accounts of the first St. Francis Legend and the three Petrarca Sonnets bear this out. Brilliant Classics provides fine sonics and annotations.
