By tackling two of the most demanding works in the repertory, where the competition is stiff and there is a rich interpretative tradition, the French pianist Francois-Frederic Guy, not yet 30, opens himself to the greatest scrutiny, temperamentally, technically and artistically. On the evidence of this disc, he is an assured Beethovenian and demands the most illustrious comparisons.
Guy’s opening tempo in the Hammerklavier is brisk (although not as fast as Eugene Albulescu’s recent recording), and his playing has a dramatic rigour. Dynamics are sometimes generalized – Beethoven’s pp cresc. ff at the end of the first movement is flattened out – and he tends to underplay structural climaxes: his entry to the recapitulation in the first movement, and the sequence of rapidly leaping trills in the finale, lack dramatic weight. Guy’s reading of the Adagio sostenuto, the longest and most intensely expressive slow movement in Beethoven’s piano sonatas, is intellectually powerful, but it doesn’t quite grip you in its spell; he doesn’t, for example, match the intensity of Arrau or the rapture and subtle dynamic shading of Barenboim’s earlier recording. In this movement Guy’s playing is beautiful, concentrated and well controlled (the final release, track 3 from 17'42'', is exquisitely done), even if it isn’t fully sustained and doesn’t quite take wing.
Throughout this disc Guy displays tremendous clarity of thought and expression. The fugal finale of Op. 106 and the extended trills towards the end of Op. 109 demonstrate his ability to untangle and delineate difficult textures and sustain them with an intellectual force and conviction. In Op. 109 Guy may not convey Brendel’s sense of natural flow and dynamic contrast – his initial tempo for the variations (marked Andante) is unusually slow, making it difficult for the line to sing, the accents in Var. 4 seem misplaced, and the dynamics are once again generalized – but the force of his musical personality is compelling and persuasive.
To summarize, then, although the slow movements do not quite reach the spiritual heights of the very greatest, these are lucid and thoughtful accounts. '