Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Opp. 90, 101, 109 & 110

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BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas Nos. 27, 28, 30, 31 • Dina Ugorskaja (pn) • CAVI 8553299 (77:35)


Dina Ugorskaja, the daughter of the pianist Anatol Ugorski, is a Russian pianist and composer trained in Germany. Early in her career, she has already recorded Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” and op. 111 sonatas, the Chopin preludes, and a disc of Handel suites. The Sonata No. 27, the first of the 32 in which Beethoven uses German to indicate the movements’ tempo and character, is the piano work in which Beethoven’s late period begins, and Ugorskaja’s playing is fully alive to the quick changes of mood in its stark, febrile first movement, with extremely sensitive pacing of the rise and fall of each phrase, and careful weighing of tone. Her tempo for the second movement is on the slow side, but the melody is patiently shaped, as if sung, never in a hurry. This is a terrific performance of an elusive work.


Ugorskaja’s well-projected, unforced sound, and instinctively rhapsodic, though tasteful, responses to the music’s changes of character, are a good fit with the predominantly lyrical sonatas Nos. 30 and 31, though there’s real grandeur in her playing in the sections that need it. How beautifully she plays the right hand melody in No. 30’s third movement’s first variation, in which Beethoven uncannily anticipates the ornamented singing line of Chopin’s nocturnes, pieces that I’d love to hear her play. No. 31 receives a properly serious, thoughtfully savored reading, with highly expressive playing in the mystical latter sections of the piece. There are one or two moments in the first movement where Ugorskaja’s impulse to move the music forward detracts from the movement’s benign, stable character, but that’s a small quibble.


In op. 101 (Sonata No. 28), I was a little disappointed in her reading of the second movement, a tricky, fast march. In it, her espressivo approach, so winning in the sonata’s first movement, isn’t always rhythmically consistent enough in the repeated dotted rhythms. (Igor Levit’s splendid performance on a recent Sony disc has more speed and better control.) Nonetheless, Ugorskaja’s late Beethoven is cognizant of the sonatas’ details and structure, and manages to sound personally expressive without being self-indulgent. Cavi’s engineering captures the depth and variety of her splendid, “open” sound. Highly recommended.


FANFARE: Paul Orgel


Product Description:

  • Release Date: March 13, 2014


  • Catalog Number: AVI 8553299


  • UPC: 4260085532995


  • Label: Cavi


  • Number of Discs: 1


  • Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven


  • Performer: Dina Ugorskaja



Works:

  1. Sonata for Piano no 27 in E minor, Op. 90

    Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

    Performer: Dina Ugorskaja (Piano)


  2. Sonata for Piano no 28 in A major, Op. 101

    Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

    Performer: Dina Ugorskaja (Piano)


  3. Sonata for Piano no 30 in E major, Op. 109

    Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

    Performer: Dina Ugorskaja (Piano)


  4. Sonata for Piano no 31 in A flat major, Op. 110

    Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

    Performer: Dina Ugorskaja (Piano)