John O'Conor is a pianist of abounding sensitivity, and these recordings bear witness to his beguilingly eloquent style. In the E flat major Sonata, Op. 7, O'Conor's speeds are remarkably close to Jando's, but the overall effect is very different. Jando's excellent version, which is bright and crisp, offers a convincing expression of the music's dramatic content. O'Conor's account, by contrast, has many poetic touches which are made all the more persuasive by the extremely soft edge of the piano sound in the recording itself. This is even more true of the other E flat Sonata in the programme, Op. 27 No. 1. In this work's first movement, for example, Jando contrasts the slower and faster passages quite violently; O'Conor conveys a more fluid transition between sections.
Occasionally, the soft bloom of the recording and O'Conor's fluid style produce detail that is less than ideally in focus; such as in the finale of Op. 27 No. 1. However, in the B flat Sonata Op. 22, internal detail and external form are beautifully expressed. Pommier's performance of the first movement may have more brio, but O'Conor more compellingly reveals the music's poetic heart. Moreover, O'Conor's faster tempo in the second movement and contrast of keyboard colour in the third produce an overall result of marvellous subtlety.
Both Jando and Pommier offer performances that are highly attractive in their own way, but O'Conor's gentle Beethoven makes a refreshing change from some of the glossier, high-speedperformances in the catalogue.'