Beethoven: The Last Three Sonatas/Mitsuko Uchida album review – the music comes as if new | Classical music

Twenty years ago, Mitsuko Uchida released a studio recording of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas that remain iconic. Now here comes this one that was filmed in Tokyo last October.

Those who liked his early recording will not find great surprises – his interpretations remain the same, although sometimes they are a little wider or more elastic, and faster, say, the short movements of Op 109 and 110. Also the Suntory Hall, which seats about 2,000, did not do the same as it did for the small audience at the Wigmore Hall in London. two weeks ago. The sound of the crowd has changed, but the general atmosphere remains the same.

Uchida’s Beethoven is still very surprising. The contrast between loud and soft may be striking but it is not at all surprising; the silent passages give a kind of communion. The long finale of these sonatas appears in large, earthy spaces, natural and natural, but powerful: in the last movement of Op 110, the solemn, Bach-like theme – with all its religious certainty – melts into Beethoven’s most mysterious, only to return happily. There is no sign of interpretation, there is no sense that this song needs mediation. Instead, it’s like he’s turning page after page of music, just giving us what he’s found there: from Beethoven, through Uchida, to us.

Listen on Apple Music (above) or Spotify