It’s not unusual for pianists to pit themselves against the colossal challenge of Beethoven’s last three sonatas in the same programme. Nevertheless the opportunity to hear a consummate artist of the calibre of Mitsuko Uchida in such an undertaking is not one to be missed. Hence the full house for last night’s recital by Uchida, as for her performance of the same programme on Sunday.
The first thing to catch the attention was the fullness of sonority right from the opening bars of op. 109 in E major. Uchida produces an ample, muscular, yet always opulent sound which she can fine down to a whisper. The second point of note is her mesmeric phrasing, stretching a climactic note or chord fractionally longer than might be expected to savour the moment. With chording voiced to perfection, she captivates both the ear and the emotions with one exquisitely turned phrase after another.
In the sixth variation of the final movement her trills were both exuberant and superlatively executed, eventually resolving with infinite grace back onto the cantabile theme that had opened the movement. The resolution of the penultimate chord onto the final one was almost unbearably delayed to wonderfully expressive effect.
There was a protracted pause too before the opening chord of op. 110 that followed, heightening the pleasure of that hymn-like phrase merely by anticipating it. In the second movement Allegro molto Uchida drew striking contrasts between piano and forte statements, and in both fugues too, when they came, she moved through tranquil and declamatory phases alike before attaining sublimity in the eventual return to the home key at the work’s conclusion.
Uchida is not alone in hearing elements of jazz in the second of op. 111’s two movements, referring in particular to the putative boogie-woogie quality of the admittedly eccentric third variation. She made her point with lightly swung rhythms that did indeed, albeit briefly and slightly irreverently, put one in mind of the great Albert Ammons a century later.
A more refined and rarefied mood returned for the transcendent final variation. As further immaculately executed trills gradually dissolved the structure of sonata form itself, Uchida’s peerless purity of tone brought the work to its mystical conclusion.
After releasing the final chord she held the silence for what seemed an eternity, demonstrating once again her ability to command the attention without playing a note.
