There are two specific dimensions where I hear this manifest. The first is in alarming lack of dynamic nuance, especially played side-by-side against his 1970’s recording. Listen to the beginning of the fugue in Op.110. The score calls for a slow and gradual increase in volume until a full ff is achieved as the break in the fugue is reached. There are many diminuendos and crescendos along the way, but the dynamic arch of this section is clear and well-defined. Most major interpreters from Schnabel through Levit play it this way, as did Pollini in 1977. In the new recording his crescendo lasts only a handful of measures. If he were the student in a master class the instructor would cut him off at that point and ask, “Where are you going? You’ve left yourself nowhere to go.” This is a recurring theme throughout the entire recording. There is not nearly enough dynamic contrast, dynamic subtlety, adherence to the dynamics of the score, effective use of dynamics within and across phrases, or a concept of dynamics consistent with Beethoven’s compositional style. And it’s not just “wrong” in the concept of Op. 110 in specific or Beethoven in general. It’s simply not musical.
My other major complaint has to do with interpretation, structure, and conception. Beethoven’s script for Op. 110 is fairly straightforward. He notates the score carefully and he doesn’t make his narrative obscure or oblique. There is a story to be told. The performer’s challenge is to balance the fact that he already knows the beginning, middle, and end of the story (as does much of the audience), but he also must convey a feeling of presence in the moment as the story plays out sequentially yet without losing track of the whole. Schnabel in particular was a master of this, but most of the great Beethoven interpreters have found a way to achieve this balance. And none of this precludes adding elements of personal interpretation, just as an actor reading a monologue would incorporate their unique voice.
To my ears, Pollini’s new recordings make no effort to convey an unfolding of narrative. There is no journey, repose, wonder, or discovery. There cannot be arrival without a journey and there is no journey. We arrive too quickly, without any reflection, wonder, or curiosity. We seem to always be at the end yet we never begin. Again, what’s so curious is how this was most definitely not the case in his earlier recordings. As musicians age, their musicianship usually deepens rather than diminishes. The means of execution are what often falls away. The musically-enlightened cherish these mature recordings as we overlook the surface imperfections for the nuggets of musical wisdom. Here we appear to have the opposite – an elderly pianist who can still use his fingers masterfully but has either forgotten how or has lost his desire to play music. I find it baffling and sad.
