Haydn: Piano Sonatas

Album review

Pianist Denis Kozhukhin, whose training includes both Russian and western European elements, has gained wide acclaim for recitals in which the 20th century element is often Prokofiev. This very nice group of Haydn sonatas has something of a Prokofiev-like quality: the four pieces, composed in the 1770s and 1780s, are given dry, sophisticated readings in which the humor in the music often sneaks in the back door of perception rather than being stated broadly. In an era in which the pianistic qualities of Haydn's sonatas are perhaps overstressed, it's nice to hear well-balanced readings like Kozhukhin's here, and they fill an empty niche. It's worth remembering that three of these four sonatas may well have originally been harpsichord works, and Kozhukhin's clean readings, without extreme dynamic ranges, do not go far beyond the boundaries of that sound world, adding only an extra layer of lyricism in the slow movements. A bonus is the crystalline sound achieved by Onyx's engineers in Berlin's Teldex studios, unusually well matched to Kozhukhin's artistic aims. The pianist's work here is both brilliant and daring, with the "Sturm und Drang" content of the Piano Sonata in B minor, Hob. 16/32, scaled back about as far as it can go, but still holding together convincingly. An impressive and somewhat unexpected outing: Russian pianists aren't much known for Haydn. The sole complaint is the presentation of the sonatas in the booklet as neglected teaching pieces; that was hardly true 20 years prior to the album's 2014 release, much less nowadays.

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