Frederic Chopin - Sonatas Nos. 2, 3 (Pollini) [1986]

Piano Sonata No.2 in B flat minor, Op.35
1. Grave - Doppio movimento
2. Scherzo - Più lento - Tempo I
3. Marche funèbre (Lento)
4. Finale (Presto)

Piano Sonata No.3 in B minor, Op.58
1. Allegro maestoso
2. Scherzo (Molto vivace)
3. Largo
4. Finale (Presto non tanto)

Maurizio Pollini, piano

Whatever Pollini does is done with conviction as firm as his tone, never allowing rubato to undermine the music's structure. Pollini's aristocratically authoritative way of doing things is superb.

Authoritative is the key word here. Whatever Pollini does is done with conviction as firm as his tone. Though aware that Chopin would not be Chopin without rubato, he never allows it to undermine the music's structure. In Sonata No. 2 his bold dynamic contrasts and purposeful, never lagging tread in the Funeral March itself, at once make that clear. Less objective in style than the masterful Duchable (Erato), he enjoys fuller, riper-sounding reproduction. And though in no way more perceptive than Perlemuter (Nimbus 2109—not submitted for review), that touchingly unforced, unaffected septuagenarian has not his younger rival's sheer physical exuberance in movements like the Scherzo of the B flat minor Sonata or the finale of the B minor—besides sounding as if recorded in a large, reverberant acoustic. Pollini's aristocratically authoritative way of doing things is superb. -- Joan Chissell, Gramophone [8/1986]

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