| Beethoven Bagatelles op 126, Piano Concerto No 1 - Sunday Times |
| Sunday 20 April 2008 |
Almost a quarter of a century ago, I remember being aghast when Claudio Arrau told me that there was wit but no humour in Beethoven. I wonder what he would have made of the genial young Polish pianist in this unusual juxtaposition of Beethoven's last works for solo piano, Op 126, and his first published concerto, the C major, Op 15? Anderszewski has already given us one of the most mercurial recent accounts of the Diabelli Variations, and here he brings the same quicksilver shifts of mood to the Bagatelles, masterly miniatures that look ahead to Chopin and Schumann and back to Bach. The rollicking, buffo style of the concerto's outer movements acknowledges debts to the comic spirits of Mozart and Haydn. Sheer bliss. |
| Source: Sunday Times |
