The young Novosibirsk-born pianist Pavel Kolesnikov has made a splash in London not only by virtue of his technical facility -- perhaps nobody on the scene today can manage a perfectly smooth surface at low volumes the way he can -- but also with unusual programming. Some may find his programs perverse, but there is generally some method to them, and in cases like the present one they may be revelatory. Beethoven's sonatas are routinely presented in various kinds of groupings, but it is rare indeed that they are put down in ...
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The young Novosibirsk-born pianist Pavel Kolesnikov has made a splash in London not only by virtue of his technical facility -- perhaps nobody on the scene today can manage a perfectly smooth surface at low volumes the way he can -- but also with unusual programming. Some may find his programs perverse, but there is generally some method to them, and in cases like the present one they may be revelatory. Beethoven's sonatas are routinely presented in various kinds of groupings, but it is rare indeed that they are put down in the middle of groups of small pieces, many of them "WoO," or without opus number. That's just what Kolesnikov does here, opening with four short without-opus pieces and resuming the sequence of freestanding short works with the set of seven Bagatelles, Op. 33. In between comes the Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 ("Moonlight"), and if you need a reason to check out Kolesnikov's work, it's this: not many performances make you hear this most familiar of all...
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