(++++) SOMEWHAT SCATTERED EXPLORATIONS

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 30-32. James Brawn, piano. MSR Classics. $14.95.

Sergei Bortkiewicz: Music for Solo Piano. Zhenni Li-Cohen, piano. Steinway & Sons. $17.99.

     The very-well-played but distinctly peculiarly arranged Beethoven sonata sequence by James Brawn has finally reached its seventh volume on MSR Classics, featuring the composer’s last three sonatas. But it is not the end of Brawn’s sequence – continuing testimony to the oddity of these releases, of which the prior (sixth) one dates all the way back to pre-pandemic 2019. Since these recordings have been appearing for nearly a decade now, with no definite end to the sequence in sight, Brawn’s performances will scarcely be anyone’s first choice for a Beethoven sonata cycle unless, perhaps, at some distant future time they are re-released in boxed form. The quirkiness of the set is truly a shame, since the playing is so good and Brawn has an unusually well-developed sense of balance between the highly dramatic aspects of the sonatas and their more-delicate, more-lyrical elements. All his insights are clearly on display in the latest release. The intimacy of Sonata No. 30 is its most salient characteristic here. Brawn certainly is aware of the sonata’s unusual construction: two short movements linked by holding down the pedal, then a third movement – a theme and variations – that is nearly three times the length of the first two combined. Brawn handles the first movement’s structure of contrasts especially well: fast/slow, loud/soft, major/minor are all very clear. He retains that sensitivity to contrast throughout, making the work’s very ending – the strongly driven fifth variation contrasted with the cantabile start of the sixth, and the intense development of that final variation until its eventual unexpected fade to quiet – especially effective. Beethoven’s interest in development-through-contrast appears in Sonata No. 31 as well, and here too Brawn handles the material skillfully and with understanding. Yet again the third movement is longer than the first two put together, although in this case only 50% more extended. The multiple sections of the finale come through especially well here: the initial recitative has operatic qualities; the arioso material is suitably songful despite being marked Klagender Gesang (“song of lamentation”); and the two fugues – especially the second – come across with considerable strength and solidity. Sonata No. 32 blends structural elements of the prior two works, incorporating striking contrasts, fugal elements and an extended theme-and-variations movement. The greatest contrast of all is between the work’s two movements considered as a whole: the stormy first movement, played by Brawn with suitable intensity, is followed by a twice-as-long second movement whose five variations frequently belie the tempo indication of Adagio molto semplice e cantabile. Yet Brawn keeps that marking in mind in suitable sections of the movement – including the very end of the entire work – and thus makes the internal contrasts of the music exceptionally clear. Like all Brawn’s sonata recordings for MSR Classics to date, this one is highly satisfying. But this “Beethoven Odyssey” (the CDs’ overall title) seems as if it is going to take longer to complete than Odysseus’ decade-long journey home from Troy. If this is not due to enmity among the gods (or muses), it must relate to exigencies of some other sort. Whatever the reason, the scattershot nature of the releases remains a disappointment: No. 1 included Sonatas Nos. 1, 3 and 23; No. 2, Sonatas Nos. 8 and 14; No. 3, Sonatas Nos. 2, 17 and 26; No. 4, Sonatas Nos. 9, 15, 24, 25 and 27; No. 5, Sonatas Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 10; and No. 6, Sonatas Nos. 4, 11 and 12. So now we have Brawn’s versions of 23 of Beethoven’s 32, and can only await further offerings.

     Music that is heard far less frequently than Beethoven’s can be equally likely to inspire first-rate performances – perhaps more so when the music is heard in the context of sociopolitical events. A new Steinway & Sons release featuring Zhenni Li-Cohen performing works by Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952) falls into this category. Bortkiewicz has generally been described as a Russian composer born in Kharkov (a transliteration of the name of his birth city from Russian). Given current geopolitics, however, he is being branded or rebranded as a Ukrainian composer born in Kharkiv (a transliteration of the city’s name from Ukrainian). In fact, it may be more accurate to associate him with Austria, since he moved to Vienna in 1922 and became a naturalized citizen of Austria four years later. Bortkiewicz was in any case a musical citizen of the Romantic era: a fine pianist himself, he was strongly influenced by Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, and never fully absorbed or cared to absorb 20^th-century compositional techniques. His piano music reflects both his Romantic leanings and his own performance style, as is easily heard in any survey of it – a six-CD set on the Grand Piano label includes it all. For those unfamiliar with Bortkiewicz, Li-Cohen’s single disc is a very worthy introduction to his piano works. The disc is best thought of as a sampling, since every piece on it is a selection from a multi-movement collection. From the four pieces of Lyrica Nova, Op. 59, there is the fourth, Con slancio (“with enthusiasm”); from Trois Morceaux, Op. 24, the first, Nocturne; from the eight Lamentations and Consolations, Op. 17, the second, Consolation; from Ten Preludes, Op. 33, the seventh and eighth (separated on the disc by other works); from Four Pieces, Op. 3, the last, Gavotte-Caprice; from Six Preludes, Op. 13, the fourth, Appassionato; from the eight pieces in Ein Roman, Op. 35, the seventh, Ein Brief (“A Letter”), and third, Erwachende Liebe (“Awakening Love”), again separated by other works; from Six Pensées Lyriques, Op. 11, the fifth, Poco moto con amabilita; from the four works in Lyrica Nova, Op. 59, the third followed by the first; and from the six Fantasiestücke, Op. 61, the second, Ein Traum. There are pluses and minuses to hearing the music all jumbled together this way. It is certainly true that Li-Cohen takes all this music out of context and robs it of whatever connections it was intended by the composer to have. But it is also true that, although Bortkiewicz wrote two piano sonatas and a few other standalone works, the vast majority of his solo-piano music does indeed consist of small, essentially independent pieces of the type heard here. Notably, Li-Cohen does not pull individual items from the Bortkiewicz groupings that really do interrelate in various ways: the 12 pieces based on Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales, Op. 30; the 14 Tolstoy-focused miniatures collectively called Kindheit (“Childhood”), Op. 39; or the nine Marionettes, Op. 54. Choosing one or two from these sets would be more problematic than what Li-Cohen has in fact done. As a result, this CD portrays Bortkiewicz as basically a miniaturist with a strong inclination to what is essentially salon music: little here seeks profundity and nothing attains it. What the disc also shows, though, is that Bortkiewicz had a very well-developed sense of the expressive capabilities of the Romantic piano, and that Li-Cohen grasps those capabilities very well and is a strong advocate for the lyricism and simple beauty underlying so many of these pieces. Most of the works Li-Cohen has chosen are in slow or moderate tempos, and that is a tad unfortunate, since it lends the disc a drifting, almost soporific air that is not typical of Bortkiewicz’ music as a whole. The delicacy and occasional pointillism of these small pieces come through quite clearly in Li-Cohen’s finely balanced and thoughtful interpretations. What is missing – from the selected music, not the performance – is any sense of verve or brightness. These are by and large crepuscular pieces, which certainly reflect Li-Cohen’s predilections – not to mention the current geopolitical circumstances evoked by Bortkiewicz’ birthplace – but which make this composer seem rather more monochromatic than in fact he is. For those unfamiliar with Bortkiewicz, this disc will serve as a fine invitation to his piano music and, hopefully, an inspiration to seek out other works in which he offers a wider variety of musical experiences.