The word for the playing of Siberian-born pianist Igor Kamenz is "nuanced." There is certainly no shortage of recordings of the "Moonlight" and "Appassionata" sonatas of Beethoven, but it's understandable that the Oehms label believed that this one would stand out -- it runs counter to current trends that emphasize Beethoven's subjectivity and locate the roots of his radicalism increasingly early in his career. Three of the four sonatas on the disc are from the so-called early period, with the Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. ...
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The word for the playing of Siberian-born pianist Igor Kamenz is "nuanced." There is certainly no shortage of recordings of the "Moonlight" and "Appassionata" sonatas of Beethoven, but it's understandable that the Oehms label believed that this one would stand out -- it runs counter to current trends that emphasize Beethoven's subjectivity and locate the roots of his radicalism increasingly early in his career. Three of the four sonatas on the disc are from the so-called early period, with the Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10/3, and the Sonata No. 9 in E major, Op. 14/1, as preludes to the two landmarks. Kamenz holds to the traditional view of the early sonatas as fundamentally Classical in orientation. Compared to something like Andras Schiff's deep contrapuntal deconstruction of Op. 10/3, Kamenz's reading is light and often playful. In Op. 14/1, he avoids the usual warm, proto-pastoral reading of the opening material in favor of a more neutral sound, and throughout the program he rarely emphasizes the...
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