Emanuel Ax has made the Haydn sonatas his own in recent years; certainly few “major label” pianists have bothered to explore these delightful works systematically, and Sony deserves credit for supporting him in his efforts. The results certainly make a powerful case for following where the artist leads (when, as here, the artist knows where he is going), for both this and Ax’s previous Haydn discs have been excellent in all respects, and he has been very enterprising in his mixture of familiar and unfamiliar works.
The sonatas included here offer a typically broad representation of Haydn’s range as a keyboard composer. The most famous of them is No. 49 in C-sharp minor, with its tragic minuet finale (here played with a powerful sense of barely muted grief). No other composer lavished so much attention on this simple dance form and discovered in it so much variety of expression. Note how appropriately Ax varies the pace of this dark piece as compared to the jaunty minuet finale of Sonata No. 34 in D.
Two sonatas in A-flat major, Nos. 31 and 35, open and close the program. No. 31 is a big work (nearly 20 minutes) and Ax plays it as such, with the bold contrasts of the broadly paced first movement and brilliant finale enfolding a poetic central Adagio. The concluding A-flat sonata brings the program to a very satisfying conclusion, its Moderato-Minuet-Presto sequence of movements providing a steady acceleration of excitement that Ax takes particular care to project effectively.
As a centerpiece, there’s the big E-flat major Sonata No. 29, and here Ax avoids possible monotony between the opening Moderato and the ensuing Andante of nearly equal length. It’s a beautifully paced performance, with a particularly jubilant account of the concluding Allegro di molto, one of Haydn’s biggest sonata finales. The high-level recording sounds a touch bright in the loudest passages, but otherwise richly supports a program that will give listeners unalloyed pleasure. [5/3/2003]
