It’s admirable how Jeno Jandó genuinely aims to read in-between Schubert’s long and winding lines in the A minor sonata, yet the otherwise flowing stream ultimately freezes on account of the pianist’s often choppy phrasing and harshness of tone at loud moments. The finale in particular is overly vehement and driven and the Scherzo’s short phrase groups are stiff and isolated in relation to each other (unlike Richard Goode’s pliable, forward moving performance). Jandó’s flippant initial tempo for the Andante precludes any sense of the subsequent variations unfolding in an organic progression as they do under Wilhelm Kempff’s bewitching hands. Nor do Jandó’s unison runs come anywhere near the miraculous poise and polish Mitsuko Uchida brings to these and other note-laden sequences throughout this sublime movement.
As for the E-flat sonata, I’ve rarely heard a performance so lacking in tenderness, lyric breadth, harmonic shading, and singing line. The pianism is spiky and square, riddled with pounded-out chords on the downbeats throughout the Andante molto, and hampered by a lilt-resistant touch (with moments of overpedalling) in the last movement. A few notes managed to slip slightly out of tune during the course of the recording sessions. Jandó has made some fine discs for Naxos, but this surely is not one of them.
