
It's been years since last I listened to David Korevaar's LvB sonata disc, and my faded memory was of a talented pianist with a big sound and unique ideas. If he didn't crack the top ten in any of the sonatas I listened to, he didn't need to. Fast forward to 2015, and his nearly hot off the press recording of D894 and D959 on MSR caught my eye. These are the same two sonatas that Pennetier covered, but Korevaar manages to squeeze both onto one disc, with time to spare.
Part of that is achieved through a brisk G Major sonata, without first movement repeat. Almost everything else is there. Korevaar makes the piece sing. He plays with admirable clarity. He arpeggiates some chords in both the opening and closing movements to good effect. He plays with larger than average scale – no dainty playing this! The one thing that is missing, or at least not as pronounced as it can be, is dynamics, particularly on the soft end, and especially in the opening movement. While Korevaar never thunders unnecessarily, he also never seems to achieve a truly satisfying
ppp sound. Has David Fray spoiled me? Anyway, this is something of a quibble, because overall the sonata is excellent.
D959 is better yet. Korevaar's big sound imparts a sense of scale and drama that really works. The opening movement is swift but not rushed, and turbulent but controlled. The Andantino has some stark, cool playing in some passages, and Korevaar deploys some rubato that can catch the listener off guard, but it still works. There are a couple times where some transitions seem a bit stiff, and this also occurs in the Scherzo, but in that movement, the energy, and sparkle up high and heft down low far more than offset a second or two that I wish were different. The final movement largely alternates between
really large scaled yet lyrical playing, and more subdued but admirably dextrous playing, especially in the melodies. The whole thing is extremely fine.
Sound for the disc is superb, and Korevaar's Shigeru Kawai sounds grand indeed. This disc trounces Pennetier's twofer. Perhaps neither performance here is a top five performance, or maybe even a top ten performance, but then, they do not need to be. I must say after listening to this, I would really love to hear Korevaar take on the Brahms concertos.
One additional quibble: movement timings are swapped for the two sonatas. How hard is that to get right?