The present installment in Garrick Ohlsson’s Beethoven Sonata series for Arabesque benefits from warmer, more focused sonics than the relatively harsh and murky ambience of his Op. 2 No. 1, Op. 109, and Op. 57 disc. Still, the pianist remains an uneven Beethovenian. His mincing deliberation in the Pathetique’s Rondo (complete with mannered holdbacks on the repeated G-naturals) seems counter to the music’s forward-moving urgency. He stretches to dangerous limits the first movement’s grandiose introduction, only to tread cautiously once the Allegro kicks in.
The Moonlight’s celebrated Adagio and less-famous middle movement elegantly droop along with little inner tension. They hardly prepare you for Ohlsson’s absolute smoker of a Finale, where his blazing fingers take no prisoners. Ohlsson dives into the Waldstein’s opening movement at a steady, precipitous clip in the manner of Solomon’s classic mono recording, only to vulgarly swoon over the E major second subject like another one-named pianist of the past: Liberace! But Ohlsson’s solid, forthright delivery of the Introduction and Rondo are much closer to the stylish mark (the octave glissandos and trills are quite breathtaking, by the way), if without the refined nuance and spiritual depth distinguishing Schnabel, Serkin, Frank, Arrau, and Goode.
