This sets new standards for protractedness in Beethoven piano playing. I am open to correction, but I should think 38'07'' must be some kind of record for Op. 111, quirky tempo relationships in the Arietta include a sudden quickening for Variation 3, followed by a virtually half-speed Variation 4.
Not that such things would bother me if they reflected a compelling interpretative vision. But Ugorski seldom displays the kind of insight, or even technical control, which would allow him to capitalize on his ultra-spacious tempos. Instead his phrasing is episodic and the music falls apart at seams of his, not the composer's, making. This seems to be a case of exaggerated response to the surface and faulty perception of the deeper musical flow.
When he takes a more straightforward approach, as in the fourth of the Op. 126 Bagatelles or in the ''Rage over a Lost Penny'' Rondo, Ugorski shows himself to be a gifted and fluent player. Of his studied eccentricity elsewhere it can truly be said that there is nothing else quite like it any deeper justification escapes me. Recording quality is close and analytical, in the best current DG manner (which I like more than do some of my colleagues). On the test pressing I have been listening to there is a faulty edit at 7'39'' in track one (the fourth beat of bar 85 in the first movement of Op. 111).'