A quite astonishing recital from Andrea Molteni with a performance of Beethoven’s mighty Hammerklavier Sonata that was monumental in its relentless forward movement and total authority.
His intellectual and architectural understanding of this great masterpiece was of someone of a maturity way above his actual 23 years. There was a clarity and unwavering vision that from the very first opening fanfare demanded our attention. The treacherous leaps played as Beethoven asks with one hand as this is a work only for fearless musicians that are ready to risk all with Beethoven. There were moments of sublime beauty in the Adagio sostenuto that Beethoven implores to be played with passion and great feeling. And as if that was not enough Beethoven demands the near impossible in the mighty final fugue which ends this the longest of all his thirty two sonatas.
Read more here at Christopher Axworthy’s blog
