With the exception of the late Emil Gilels, I cannot think of many Russian pianists that I would consider to be great Beethoven players. Mikhail Pletnev, so effective in demanding virtuoso pieces, such as Liszt's First Mephisto Waltz and the Brahms F minor Sonata, gives respectable and accomplished readings of these three familiar Beethoven sonatas, but there is nothing that I find remarkable.
The Moonlight has a rather too ponderous first movement and then continues with a meticulously phrased Allegretto and technically accurate, though musically undistinguished, Presto. The Waldstein works rather better, and although there may be few revelations, this very straight account is tonally well judged. Pletnev makes his impact primarily through power and turbulence in the opening movement, but when we get to the finale he does not manage to convey the 'universality' of the music. One notices the lovely touches of refined pianism, but not the message of the piece.
I felt that the Appassionata would have benefited from a slightly more classical treatment: the tension is too much relaxed at times and I sensed that the pianist did not have a very firm grasp of the structure of the first movement. The Andante with variations is a trifle too slow. It is because the finale has a blatantly obvious agitato virtuoso character that Pletnev finds few problems in performing it; temperament is built into every bar. Undeniably exciting, here again I look at my notes and see ''musically nebulous and lacking in a definite stylistic perspective''.
Some may feel that this is harsh. However, I must point out that these sonatas have been recorded by some of the greatest artists of the century, and it would be wrong to give the impression that Pletnev's playing can be considered alongside these. The recorded sound offers a spacious acoustic, which does full justice to Pletnev's carefully regulated use of piano tone.'