Beethoven subtitled his Op. 27 Sonatas “quasi una fantasia”. Louis Lortie’s static, literal playing, however, dispels any notion of whimsy the composer may have had in mind. His plodding jog through the E-flat Sonata’s Scherzo, for example, has little in common with Schnabel’s rabble rousing. Lortie sets a dangerously slow pace for the “Moonlight’s” famous Adagio, fiddles with voicings, and leaves the listener hanging at square one. He tiptoes through the finale at a sturdy and safe clip, imposing little rhetorical touches that impede the music’s momentum. The spacious lyricism of the “Pastoral” sonata, on the other hand, better suits the pianist’s temperament, and he evokes the music’s woodwind-like profile with total success. Lortie’s piano is gorgeously reproduced via Chandos’ resonant, clear miking.
