This album, issued by Divine Art in 2010, was rescued from the still smaller Calico label in 2003. The sound is boxy and way too close, with the upper register of the piano seriously suppressed. This is a major problem in, for example in the slow movement of the Piano Sonata in D minor, Op. 31/2 ("Tempest"), where the increasingly significant octave motive in the right hand gets lost in a sonic miasma. The polyphonic structure of the opening movement of the
Mozart Piano Sonata in F major, K. 533/K. 494, and
Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110, is also less than crisp. So what was the big attraction for Divine Art? British pianist
Jill Crossland delivers one of the most insightful performances of the "Tempest" around, with a reading that gets the brooding drama in the work but gets away from the "Tempest" idea, which was not
Beethoven's to begin with. Sample from the very beginning and enjoy;
Crossland rarely rises above moderate dynamics, but she conveys strong tension from the opening material onward. The Piano Sonata No. 31 is nearly as strong, with all kinds of original ideas. Hear the deliberate impact
Crossland gives the normally abrupt syncopated figure in the Scherzo (track 8), for example; the mysterious slow movement is also very affecting here and makes you want to hear
Crossland take on the giant, tragic slow movement of the Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106 ("Hammerklavier"). The
Mozart sonata, perhaps partly because of the sonics, is not quite in the same league, lacking a certain tension between complexity and brilliance that lies at the heart of this remarkable work. But this disc belongs in collections of
Beethoven sonatas, where it will carve out a unique niche.