(++++) STRINGS STRUCK AND STRUMMED

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 28 and 29 (“Hammerklavier”). James Brawn, piano. MSR Classics. $14.95.

Bach: Harpsichord Concertos Nos. 1, 3, 4, and 5. Tianqi Du, piano; Academy of St. Martin in the Fields conducted by Jonathan Bloxham. Naïve. $16.99.

Live in Aspen. Sharon Isbin, guitar; Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan Ali Bangash, and Ayaan Ali Bangash, sarods; Amit Kavthekar, tabla. ZOHO Music. $16.99.

     It’s about time. More than a decade after James Brawn’s recordings of Beethoven’s piano sonatas began appearing on MSR Classics – with a first disc oddly including Nos. 1, 3 and 23 (“Appassionata”) – the ninth and last volume of the cycle is now available. And it caps the series with the same mixture of excellence and oddity that has been part of Brawn’s offerings throughout. The conclusion of Brawn’s so-titled “Beethoven Odyssey” includes the two sonatas that Beethoven designated “Hammerklavier,” although the title stuck only to the second and much larger of them. A strange way to end the sequence, this is nevertheless a most worthwhile disc for the opportunity it presents to hear these two very different works in juxtaposition (notwithstanding the reality that they were composed several years part). Brawn is above all a thoughtful pianist, using his excellent technique not for display purposes but to color in the nuances of Beethoven’s music and present its challenges as communicative opportunities. He is especially strong when contrasting movements that have very different characters: the gentle opening of Sonata No. 28 and the Marschmässig second movement are particularly telling here, after which the very short but lovely Langsam und sehnsuchtvoll third movement reinforces the underlying contrasts with which this sonata abounds – and the forthright strength of the start of the finale makes the differences clearer still, while providing a thoroughly engaging and unusually clearly played capstone for the entire work. The same approach stands Brawn in very good stead in the ever-challenging Sonata No. 29, which invites performers to display virtuosity first and foremost – an invitation that Brawn firmly declines. For example, after the suitably proclamatory opening of the first movement, Brawn emphasizes the foundational lyricism of the music and downplays (so to speak) the difficulty of performing it. His ability to harness his technique, making it subservient to his view of the composer’s expressive intentions, is what shines through here, and indeed permeates his entire Beethoven cycle. Brawn shows just how packed with material the very brief second movement of No. 29 is, and then – again providing excellence of contrast – he allows the Adagio sostenuto expansiveness that is so involving that it is hard to see where the music will go next. Where it does go, of course, is into the very complex concluding fugue, wherein Brawn does a fine job of allowing the contrapuntal material to show through while simultaneously emphasizing the drama and emotional heft of this extraordinary movement. There is very little to quibble about in any of Brawn’s recordings in his Beethoven sequence – except for the fact that the sonata mix on individual CDs is often decidedly peculiar, and the whole cycle has taken so devilishly long to emerge. A boxed set of the complete nine-disc series would be most welcome – although it would be even better (if less likely) for the completed sequence to be released, now that it is complete, in a rearrangement into the actual order in which the 32 sonatas are normally presented.

     Rearrangement of a different sort is entirely typical when it comes to Bach’s harpsichord concertos, which are regularly and incorrectly dubbed “keyboard concertos," as if that somehow justifies playing them on the piano. The fact is that these wonderful works were conceived for an instrument whose strings are plucked, not one whose strings are hammered – and the use of a modern piano, no matter how sensitively played, is fundamentally at odds with the sound that Bach explored and evoked in these pieces. Of course, none of this stops pianists from wanting to perform the concertos; nor should it. It is another matter for listeners, though, as is clear from Tianqi Du’s playing of four of the concertos on a Naïve CD. The forthright brightness of the playing of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Jonathan Bloxham contrasts unsettlingly with the warmth and emotional evocativeness of Du’s piano playing, even though Du does not overuse the pedals or engage too greatly in effects of which the harpsichord is incapable. Still, the sustaining chords and somewhat murky trills of the finale of Concerto No. 1 are evidence, if any were needed, of the fact that this music was not intended for the (then-nonexistent) piano. The decorations in the first movement of Concerto No. 3, using the deep key travel of today’s piano effectively, pull the music toward the Romantic era, and the emotive Adagio e piano sempre that follows does so to an even greater extent. The bounciness of the solo part in the first movement of No. 4 fits the piano somewhat better, but the pietà sound of the Larghetto is overdone, and Du makes the concluding Allegro ma non tanto a bit too much about the soloist. The gloom of the first movement of Concerto No. 5 is also overdone here, thanks in large part to the mellow piano sound – this concerto is thoughtful but scarcely melancholy, a distinction that comes through somewhat better in the central Largo here. The back-and-forth exclamations and recurrent trills of the concluding Presto, however, never really establish a mood that blends or contrasts particularly well with the ensemble’s sound. This is a (+++) recording that is quite well played on its own terms – but its terms are not Bach’s and should not be confused with his.

     Strings can be used to evoke sound in ways other than plucking (harpsichord) or striking (piano), of course. And they are central to the music of multiple traditions. This can lead to some fascinating aural blendings for audiences inclined to find cross-genre music-making intriguing. An example is the Live from Aspen CD featuring guitarist Sharon Isbin with four performers on instruments from India – a disc resulting from the musicians’ playing together in the summer of 2022. The attractions of this (+++) disc are somewhat on the rarefied side – the sound of the individual and combined instruments matters more than the specific pieces performed – but audiences seeking less-common sonorities and sonic blends, and those favoring excellent guitar playing both in solos and in mixed instrumental company, will find much to enjoy here. Francisco Tárrega’s Capricho Árabe, the guitar solo that opens the disc, gives Isbin the chance to make a very fine impression with the coloristic effects of her instrument and the emotional variety of which it is capable. It is the remainder of the disc, though, that will especially appeal to the niche audience that will find it enjoyable. The lutelike Hindustani classical sarod is heard throughout the remainder of the CD, along with the paired hand drums known as tabla. The performers informally introduce and explain some of the material to a volubly enthusiastic audience at the Aspen Music Festival. An understanding of ragas, an enjoyment of improvisations, and a fascination with the differing sounds brought forth by stringed instruments from varying traditions go a long way toward making this disc enjoyable – it is, for example, important to know the symbolism underlying the various ragas used as the basis for Sacred Evening, By the Moon and the other pieces here. Of particular interest is Raga Bhatyali—Folk Music of Bengal, within which appears a folk song composed by Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. Strictly from the point of view of mingled sound, however, the most-engaging multi-instrument work here is the concluding Romancing Earth, in which the considerable contrast between Isbin’s guitar and the Indian instruments produces an emotionally affecting melding that seeks, with some success, to bridge the gap between the cultures that produced the differing means of making music. Nevertheless, to many Western ears, the Asian instruments’ qualities will likely share a sameness that leads the individual pieces on this disc to sound much like each other – even though they are derived from different elements of their own traditions. This is a CD for those of an exploratory bent who find the experience of cross-cultural outreach and cooperation more than enough reason to hear music generated by instruments that use strings in ways uncommonly heard outside the Indian subcontinent.