It was in the mid 1960s that Bruno-Leonardo Gelber began to make a name for himself with a number of discs for EMI, including Beethoven's Third and Fifth Piano Concertos. Today his playing retains all the old strengths—massively powerful forte passages and, by way of contrast, a feminine elegance and feeling for hushed sonorities in the quieter episodes. Always technically self-assured, Gelber is an ideal recording artist, and throughout this CD one can admire an enthusiasm for the medium that is so often absent in the playing of the more experienced artist.
Beethoven was 28 when he wrote the Pathetique and so Gelber's virtuosity and verve are apt in the first and third movements. This reading has the immediacy and involvement of a live performance, though the pianist carefully avoids an overmelodramatic approach. Surprisingly there is some articulation missing in his shaping of the second subject theme, where the hands cross rapidly. However, an authoritative personality is always present, as is thorough and stylistically aware musicianship
In a way, it is much easier to make something out of the Pathetique than it is the miniature Sonata in G, Op. 49 No. 2. The very concise form and economy of notation can catch a pianist unawares unless he is capable of using every note for an expressive end. Gelber is entirely attuned to the composer's inventiveness on this small scale and the Minuet goes with an ideally unaffected delicacy.
The remaining two sonatas on this CD are the most assertive of the earliest sets, and each one suits Gelber's temperament. The stormy opening of the C minor contrasts with a beautiful restraint in the short development section of the first movement. There is tremendous stability of approach here. The only real quibble that I have with Gelber's Beethoven style is that he misses something of the depth of the slow movements, concentrating too much on a rounded tone for his effect. This is true both of the latter sonata and of the Adagio in the C major, Op. 2 No. 3. But then he scores so resoundingly in the power of the first movement and the light virtuosity of the finale that the overall impact is extremely impressive.
The piano sound has been excellently recorded with a full-blooded tone. Some may feel that it is a little over-mellow in the slow movements, but I think this may have been intentional in adding 'weight' to the readings. Perhaps the choice of sonatas could have featured works with more contrasting tonalities. Gelber uses a recent Japanese edition that claims to be the last word in authenticity and scholarship, though I cannot see the justification for the note that ''these performances present us with a new image of the Beethoven piano sonata''; Gelber's values and his strengths are those of an experienced and commendably sound musician and pianist.'