Tzimon Barto - Unexpected Encounters: A Selection of Piano Sonatas by Joseph Haydn (2009)

×

Tzimon Barto - Unexpected Encounters: A Selection of Piano Sonatas by Joseph Haydn (2009)

Close

When writing about the talented American pianist Tzimon Barto, it is tempting to touch on his unorthodox career trajectory, his extra-musical activities as a poet and novelist, or even details of his personal life, all of which seem to exercise an irresistible fascination for journalists. These are but distractions from this singular pianist’s actual musical accomplishments, which, as this new release of Haydn sonatas amply demonstrates, are of compelling interest. Suffice it to say that, following a number of EMI releases early in his public career, Barto stayed away from the recording studio for a number of years. In 2006, however, he began a collaboration with Ondine that has produced recordings of Rameau and Ravel (Ondine 1067 and 1095 respectively). This Haydn recording, titled “Chance Encounters,” an allusion to the title of one of Haydn’s operas for Eszterháza, is Barto’s third disc for the Finnish label.

The great C-Major Sonata, No. 60, one of three inspired by Haydn’s experiences in London with the robust English pianos and dedicated to Clementi’s pupil, Therese Jansen, holds center stage. Barto captures all the variegated detail and ebullient cheerfulness of this masterpiece. The broad pace of the first movement evokes nothing so much as an intelligent conversation with a witty sophisticate. The pianissimo passages in the development and recapitulation, famous for Haydn’s unconventional instruction, “Open Pedal,” followed by a wavy line across the bar lines, are played here with dampers completely raised to marvelous effect. The eloquent Adagio is imbued with the grace and poise of an operatic soliloquy. The rollicking finale, with its astonishing wrong turns in a veritable harmonic labyrinth, is particularly effective. Here, as in the Presto finales of the 38th and 42nd Sonatas, Barto shows himself the master of this characteristic Haydn texture. Despite the terrific speed of these movements, phrases are meticulously articulated, and each melodic gesture enunciated with perfect clarity. In the opening movements of the three earlier sonatas, the indicated repeats, including those of the developments and recapitulations, are observed, to the tremendous enhancement of narrative coherence and structural integrity. If Barto ventures onto thin interpretive ice, it is in the near stasis of the slow movements of the 10th and 38th Sonatas. The 6/8 Adagio of the F-Major Sonata feels as though it is a Grave in 3/4. Yet, despite the risks of such extremely slow tempos, Barto maintains interest by the extraordinary gradation of soft sounds he employs, ranging from mp to pppp . While probably not a procedure Haydn would have recognized, in terms of modern piano playing, these sensitively subtle strategies can be quite beautiful.

Recorded at Järvenpää Hall near Helsinki in January 2008, the color and variety of Barto’s sound seems faithfully captured. Those interested in cutting-edge performance practice will no doubt prefer Ronald Brautigam’s 15-disc traversal of all the Haydn sonatas on BIS. Barto’s performances, on the other hand, are not remotely concerned with the possibilities achievable on an 18th-century Schanz or Broadwood. Instead, he focuses on the fullest exploitation of the modern concert grand’s resources to create richly imaginative Haydn interpretations of great integrity, warmth, and originality. Recommended.

Review by Patrick Rucker, Fanfare

The wildly revisionist recordings of American pianist Tzimon Barto (born Johnny Smith) provide the mainstream classical piano repertory with a salutary jolt. Whether he's playing Rameau, Ravel, or now a group of keyboard sonatas of Haydn, he revels in ultra-detailed readings (Barto marks up scores with interpretive directions at the micro level and refuses to perform from memory) with extreme dynamic contrasts, carefully controlled gradations of dynamics and articulation, and an overall willingness to place the dictates of expression above any concept of authentic performance or even fealty to what's in the score. Barto, who has added bodybuilding, command of eight languages, composition of several thousand poems he plans to engrave on stone slabs, and a bout with crack cocaine addiction to an impressive résumé, might be considered a somewhat less Romantic-oriented and less overtly flamboyant relative of Ivo Pogorelich, but his music-making is no less extreme. The Haydn sonatas here make the listener gasp, and at times likely laugh out loud, at the sheer unexpectedness of the events in the music. No repeat is safe from Barto's sudden accents; no cadential pattern exempt from a sudden intense focus on its significance; no limpidly playful finale like that of the Piano Sonata No. 42 in G major, Hob. 16/27, is off limits for a high concept. Barto's recordings of the late 2000s, for the Finnish label Ondine, which are beautifully recorded, have brought him admirers on both sides of the Atlantic. This one, devoted to a composer who, despite his boisterous personality, lived in a decorous time and depended on decorousness and balance to make his jokes work, is perhaps not quite so successful as the others, and nobody should pick it out as a first choice for Haydn's sonatas. It is unlikely, however, to disappoint Barto's growing body of fans, for like Barto's other work, it leaves the listener with the feeling of never having heard the music at all.

Review by James Manheim, Allmusic.com

×

Tzimon Barto - Unexpected Encounters: A Selection of Piano Sonatas by Joseph Haydn (2009)

Close

×

Tzimon Barto - Unexpected Encounters: A Selection of Piano Sonatas by Joseph Haydn (2009)

Close

×

Tzimon Barto - Unexpected Encounters: A Selection of Piano Sonatas by Joseph Haydn (2009)

Close