Melodie Zhao and Tatiana Nikolayeva Play Beethoven

[Todd]

So far, for no particular reason, 2014 has turned out to be something of the year of the woman pianist for me.  I didn't set out to buy a lot of recordings by women, but a lot of things played by women have caught my eye and emptied my wallet.  I started off buying some Handel by Dina Ugorskaja and Ragna Schirmer, and then quickly bought all available recordings by the former and most by the latter.  I stumbled upon Lubka Kolessa online, and snapped up the threefer of her now ancient recordings with alacrity.  Then there was Alicia de Larrocha's most excellent Mozart reissue.  I also found and snapped up Yaeko Yamane's idiosyncratic but most absorbing Beethoven cycle.  The two big boxes of Maria João Pires recordings will soon grace my listening room.  The big Lili Kraus box is soon to be released – and instantly snapped up: this is one I'm really eager to hear.  Mari Kodama's Beethoven cycle is coming in box form soon, too.  As it pertains to Beethoven specifically, one new and one old cycle, both played by women, recently ended up on my radar, in my cart, and finally in my possession.  Melodie Zhao is a new kid, literally, on the block.  A Swiss teen of Chinese heritage, she apparently is something of a wunderkind, having recorded Liszt's Études d'exécution transcendante at age 17 and Chopin's Etudes at age 13.  So, it would seem she should be able to handle the demands of Beethoven's music on a technical level.  Tatiana Nikolayeva is better known, of course.  A Russian pianist and teacher – most notably of Nikolai Lugansky – she recorded a fair amount of standard rep.  Her Beethoven cycle has been known to me since I started buying cycles, and the universal criticism of her technique made me wary of buying her set.  But I finally relented.  Buying both cycles at the same time meant I got to do some A/B listening to determine who I like more.  Here goes.

Ms Zhao's cycle starts with Op 2, sensibly enough, and right out of the gate it's clear that she opts for something other than a Steinway – she uses a Bosendorfer for a quarter of the cycle – which in turn makes her light, staccato playing admirably clear.  The Adagio of the first sonata remains light, even delicate at times, and is somewhat small-scaled and definitely classical in approach, and occasionally seems, perhaps, almost, maybe just a bit halting or stiff.  Even the concluding movement, while nicely intense, is classical in style, though she infuses some of the playing with some nice individuality.  Op 2/2, shorn of first movement repeat, is swift and chipper, with good dynamics, and this very modern, high-grade recording shows that Ms Zhao plays with superb clarity and brings out the inner voices exceptionally well.  Perhaps not Peter Rösel well, but exceptionally well, nonetheless.  The slow movement is definitely Largo, but perhaps not very appasionato, and Ms Zhao once again offers some slightly stiff, and here slightly italicized playing, with some notes and chords and left hand trills very clearly (over-?) emphasized.  The last two movements are nicely judged in tempo, clarity, and oomph.  2/3 opens with a quick and powerful opening movement, though one can hear Ms Zhao stomp the pedals when playing the loudest notes, and even then she never does truly thunder out the notes.  The slow movement improves on those of the first two sonatas a bit, but is similar in approach.  Likewise, the closing movements are quick and energetic.  A good opener.

From the start, Tatiana Nikolayeva's take on 2/1 is more to my liking, at least in spirit.  Slower, more deliberate, but not too heavy, she extracts more depth out of the music, and the slow movement is quite moving for early LvB.  (Maybe too moving?)  The flubs I've read about for years appear first, or at least big flubs appear first, in the third movement, and they go by without too much impact.  They do have more of an impact in the finale.  The spirit of the music is there, the intensity, too, but it's marred just a bit.  The second sonata is similarly a bit slow, deep(-ish) but not heavy-handed, but now the slips show up in the first movement, and they do more harm.  The slow movement is again well done, and the last two movements are like the first.  Things don't go as well in the third sonata.  It's more energetic, virtuosic opening movement proves too much a challenge for Nikolayeva's technique, with slips – some big, some bigger – popping up all over the place, and some passages are too slow and cumbersome, to boot.  The slow movement again comes off well, and the third movement actually isn't too bad.  The final movement also fares well, with nice energy and some lapses and slips, but nothing as bad as in the opener.  So, an excellent in spirit, but no-so-hot in execution opener.

The second disc of Zhao's cycle opens with Op 7, and the opening movement is sprightly, rhythmically buoyant, cleanly articulated, but a bit constrained dynamically – but is that the pianist or the close recording?  Or both?  Anyway, it sort of bounces along for the duration.  Zhao draws out some of the chords and silences in the Largo, which results in the music sounding more plastic than profound.  The Allegro and Rondo are both vigorous and bouncy, like the opening movement, with a few loud chords perhaps a touch too emphasized, or perhaps not.  Op 10/1 opens with a moderate tempo, but precisely controlled ascending arpeggio, maintains a moderate tempo throughout, and Zhao powers out some exciting bass chords.  The slow movement again displays Zhao's penchant for stiff phrasing and comparative shallowness, but the Prestissimo is quick and vibrant.  Seems like a pattern.  Given Zhao's traits up to this point, I guessed 10/2 would be a vibrant romp, and I was right.  While not the last word in wit, it's superb throughout.  Pity there's no third movement repeat.  A good second disc.

The second disc of Nikolayeva's cycle contains the same works.  The Op 7 opener is more fluid, but less controlled, not as rhythmically snappy, and heavier.  But the slow movement is more developed, more sincere, even though slips make repeated appearances.  The Allegro and Rondo are nicely done, with slips in the tolerable range.  Op 10/1 has some slips right near the outset, but Nikolayeva keeps things moving along.  The slow movement again benefits from her more measured approach, and the final movement isn't shabby.  Op 10/2 is a bit heavy, and the tempo is definitely on the slow side, though it never drags.  There are more slips than I would have anticipated, and it lacks much in the way of fun, but Nikolayeva does take the final movement repeat.  A good in spirit, and slightly better in execution disc two.

Disc 3 for Zhao starts up with 10/3, and the first movement tempo is not rushed, nor is it sluggish, but it is well judged, and clarity is quite striking, especially in the bass.  The second movement has less of the occasional stiffness of prior slow movements, and a slight improvement in dynamic gradation, but it lacks a bit in bite, in intensity, in heft.  The last two movements are predictably quick and energetic, with the Rondo quite delightful.  The Pathetique opens with strong but not thunderous chords, with the tempo of the Grave drawn out a bit, while the Allegro is pushed a bit, making for a nice contrast in tempo, though it feels just a bit contrived.  The Adagio is comparatively brisk, and the pointed playing does not really sound cantabile.  The whole thing is just a bit light, too.  The Rondo is quick and potent.  The disc closes with Op 14/1, and here Zhao's light (or light-ish) style and energy pay off handsomely.  A good third disc.

Nikolayeva's 10/3 opener is once again slower and heavier, but it also sounds deeper and more purposeful, if much more labored.  The slow movement, the heart of the work, is much better here, with more intensity and feeling, but less control.  The Menuetto and Rondo are a bit too heavy, almost lumbering, in places, but nonetheless they sound good within the context of Nikolayeva's interpretation.  Op 13 is likewise slower but deeper, and it likewise suffers from less control.  Nikolayeva's deeper approach again pays dividends in the slow movement, and the Rondo, too.  Op 14/1, suffering from a rather unpleasant left channel hiss or buzz that lasts for a few seconds, also sounds surprisingly good, with Nikolayeva playing quite cleanly and, if not exactly lightly, at least not too heavily.  A few memory lapses and uncomfortable phrases pass by causing little damage.  The Allegretto, sounding more like an Adagio here, is appealing but pushes the very bounds of what this light work can withstand.  The Rondo is a bit heavier than ideal, but, a few slips aside, isn't too bad.  Op 14/2's opening Allegro has verve, and again the errors cause little damage, the Andante is a bit slow though still charming, and the Scherzo is generally good, though roughly midway through, Nikolayeva seems to forget where she's at in the score for a few seconds, though she recovers.  A pretty good disc three.

Disc four in Zhao's set starts with 14/2, and rather predictably, Ms Zhao's light, clear playing pays dividends.  The Allegro is lyrical and glides along; the Andante is a chipper, fun march; and the Scherzo is vivacious.  Most enjoyable.  Op 22 starts out well, with plenty of drive and brio in the Allegro, but then Zhao slows way down for the Adagio, which again sounds a bit artificial.  Slower does not always mean deeper.  Once Zhao is back to playing faster music in the Menuetto and Rondo, things improve.  The opening movement of Op 26 manages to encapsulate both Zhao's strengths and weaknesses in less than eight minutes.  The faster variations are clear and energetic and lyrical as appropriate, the slower ones somewhat shallow and halting.  The Scherzo is predictably energetic.  The surprise, or at least partial surprise, is how well the Funeral March works.  Zhao's rather too obvious phrasing and clipped style end up working well, and if the movement lacks much in the way of gravitas, it still sounds hefty.  The last  movement is well done.  A pretty good disc four.

Disc four in Nikolayeva's set starts off with Op 22, and the opening movement is quite bad.  Too slow, yet riddled with slips, and beset by clunky phrasing, it is a chore to listen to.  Nikolayeva does better in the slow movement, though even here, there are just too many slips.  The Menuetto isn't too bad in terms of pacing or slips, but then the Rondo is way too heavy handed and suffers from perhaps a half-dozen too many errors.  A clunker of a performance.  Op 26 starts off more promising, with a theme and variations free of any cringe-inducing slips and offering distinctive variations and not a little heft.  Nikolayeva plays with the right spirit in the Scherzo, but there are too many flubbed passages to render it a success.  The Funeral March, though, is quite good.  Bold, funereal, and heroic in mien, and again lacking terrible flubs, it succeeds, and the concluding Rondo, though peppered with some flubs, also fares well.  It sort of balances out Op 22.  27/1 again displays the right spirit, and while the slower portions generally sound good, when Nikolayeva has to play the louder and faster passages, as at the end of the Allegro molto e vivace or the entire concluding Allegro vivace, she just doesn't play with sufficient control, and the piece suffers.  The Mondschein fares better in the opener, which comes off as suitably moody, though I could have used more sustain.  The Allegretto is so-so, neither offending nor exciting, and the Presto Agitato, well, it's good in spirit and less good in execution, as expected at this point.  A not-so-good disc four.

Zhao opens disc five with a crackerjack 27/1.  Swift tempi, superb clarity, perfectly controlled dynamics, and a light and basically fun overall feel result in probably the best performance up to this point.  Good stuff.  27/2 is similar, but the opening movement lacks the hazy feel I prefer, and is perhaps just a bit too fast, though the overall tense feeling is intriguing.  The Allegretto well paced and a bit cool, which contrasts with the fast 'n' (almost) furious Presto agitato, which benefits from beefy but not overpowering bass (itself aided by the close microphones), and some almost sharp sounding high registers.  It's all very entertaining.  Op 28 closes out the disc, and Zhao opts for a very slightly swift overall tempo, and plays with a gentle staccato and sure rhythm, though she never quite ratchets up the tension enough in the more intense sections.  The Scherzo is good fun, and the Rondo is as well, with Zhao deploying some nicely individual phrasing that injects some fun and avoids over-obvious point making.  It's a really solid performance, if not one of the greats.  Disc five is excellent.

Nikolayeva's fifth disc starts with Op 28, which offered a chance for a true A/B comparison.  Nikolayeva takes the opening Allegro at a slightly faster tempo and she plays more lyrically in the outer sections, but she lacks control in the middle section and anytime she needs to play louder or faster.  The Andante is taken appreciably slower, and it benefits from Nikolayeva's approach to slow movements, and is pretty clean.  The Scherzo suffers from no gross slips, is jaunty, and Ms Nikolayeva even manages to play the loudest and fastest passages without incident.  The closing movement is graceful and lyrical to start, though Nikolayeva does play with some slips, and she plays parts of the movement at reduced dynamic levels for some reason.  Still, overall, it's a good recording.  Op 31/1's opening Allegro vivace displays Nikolayeva's standard traits once again, with the pianist playing with the right spirit, really bringing out some of the wit, but there are just too many slips.  Things improve a bit in the nicely paced second movement, and then revert to error-prone form for the closing movement.  Despite the slips, though, this performance exudes enough fun to make listening enjoyable.  The opening movement of the Tempest is so plagued by slips, especially in the exposed right hand passages, that it is hard to listen to.  The slow movement seems at sea in a few passages.  The Allegretto has fewer slips than the opening movement, and is pretty good, but the damage is done by this point.  A so-so disc five.

The sixth disc in Ms Zhao's cycle is given over to Op 31, which is how I generally prefer these critical works to be presented.  No muss, no fuss, just about an hour of listening to some of Beethoven's finest keyboard writing.  Zhao plays the opening to 31/1 splendidly.  Quick, admirably clear, it is filled with energy, wit, and joy.  She then opts to play the second movement very slowly.  While this mannerism can and does hurt other slow movements, such is not the case here.  In fact, in offering something of an exaggerated contrast in tempo, she brings out the lumbering left hand playing and fun trills all the better.  The middle section is nicely faux heavy.  The closing movement is a bit more leisurely than I anticipated, but even so, or perhaps because of its style, it offers just the right feel, especially when Zhao plays the coda with a nice degree of boisterousness.  The opening movement of 31/2 has nicely timed pauses and admirable clarity, and decent tension and intensity, but it comes across as a bit cool and detached.  The second movement sounds a bit more atmospheric, and Zhao still manages to bring out every little detail, here without undue emphasis.  It's a bit light, perhaps, but it is quite nice.  Zhao saves her best playing in this sonata for the last movement.  Her tempo, her intensity, and her clarity all make for an exciting time.  31/3 opens with a mostly energetic Allegro.  The beefy, detailed left hand playing underpins the whole thing, which, a couple unique or unusual slow-downs aside, cruises right along.  The Scherzo is just plain good fun, as it should be, though the loudest chords could be a bit louder.  (As an aside, whenever I listen to this movement, I conjure a mental image of a pianist playing a jocular improvisation, punctuating some of the music with banged out chords, with some phrases played faux sloppily, all in jest.  Zhao more or less does just this.)  Zhao definitely follows the grazioso indication in the charming little Menuetto, and she romps through the Presto con fuoco, with an at times growling bass line.  It's a jolly good time.  So, Ms Zhao delivers a strong Op 31 trio.  Sure, I can think of probably a dozen or two dozen versions of each work I prefer, but she's solid when she most needs to be, at least up to this point.  That's always a good sign.  Disc six is superb.

Disc six for Nikolayeva starts off with 31/3, offering another chance at an A/B, and here Nikolayeva acquits herself nicely.  The first two movements are taken at nice tempi, Nikolayeva keeps things under control fairly well – though she's nowhere near as precise as Zhao – and she plays with plenty of energy.  The Menuetto, noticeably slower, is less ingratiating than Zhao's, though Nikolayeva plays the middle section with some real bite.  The Presto con fuoco is good fun, with Nikolayeva belting out the loudest passages with sloppy ease.  Nikolayeva's Op 31, while pretty much spot-on in spirit in all three works, suffers from too many slips and not enough control overall.  I definitely prefer Zhao here.  Op 49 follows, and the works are generally a bit broad of tempo, and sound nice enough, but Nikolayeva makes some noticeable slips even in these two works.  The Waldstein comes next, and, well, at least Nikolayeva tries.  She plays with a broad tempo overall, and she knows what she wants to do, but some of the playing is so bad, with gobs of notes only approximating the music, that it is hard to listen to.  The slow Introduzione is better – it is OK – and if the Rondo is not quite as bad as the opening movement, there are more than a few big slips.  The whole sonata is a whiff.  The disc is sub-par. 

Earlier discs led me to think that Zhao would play the Op 49 works in a delightful, playful manner, and so she does to open her seventh disc.  Her playing is also flub-free, and her playing of the second movement of 49/2 is a joy from start to finish.  Op 53 opens with Zhao playing at near-lightning speed, with impressive dexterity and right hand clarity, though like some other pianists, it sounds like she plays with a narrowed dynamic range to achieve that feat, though she also slows up nicely when needed.  The effect, though, is a bit calculated, a bit contrived.  The same thing holds true for the expertly played Introduzione.  Zhao avoids many of the traits that characterized slow movements in earlier works, but the playing sounds almost sterile.  Not surprisingly, the concluding Rondo displays the same mix of dazzling virtuosity of the opening movement – Zhao's playing here really does border on the awesome at times – and calculation.  For all the formidable playing, something is missing.  Op 54 closes out the disc.  Zhao plays the alternating themes of the opening movement quite well, sounding better the faster she plays, and the second movement starts off at a moderate tempo and gradually builds up steam until the frisky coda.  Zhao plays well, but not exceptionally.  The seventh disc is good.

Disc seven of Nikolayeva's cycle offers yet another A/B opportunity as it opens with Op 54, and the comparison does not favor the older pianist.  The contrast between the themes of the opening movement is stark, but so is the cringe-inducing sloppiness, and the clunky second movement never seems to end.  Ugh.  Were that Op 57 that good.  The opening movement is so beset by errors that all one can do is hope for it to end quickly, which, alas, it does not.  Once again, Nikolayeva plays with the right spirit, but that's nowhere near enough.  The slow movement improves a bit, and the concluding movement is intense and, at least compared to the opening movement, not excessively blotted by errors, though it's impossible to recover from the opener.  Op 78 improves things a bit; it's more like Op 54.  Op 79 opens with perhaps the clunkiest, heaviest Presto all tedesca I've yet heard, and it's sloppy throughout.  The slow movement is better, and for a brief period the final movement seems pretty good, but that impression fades swiftly.  81/a is much the same and warrants little comment, except I feel compelled to point out that the final movement is especially terrible.  Disc seven is just plain bad.

Zhao opens the eight disc with Op 57, and the Allegro assai once again displays a mix of superb clarity and control, slightly constrained dynamics, and a calculated feel.  There's no doubt Zhao can play fast and furious, and there is a sense of effortlessness, or at least not great effort being expended, but real tension, real bite is lacking.  While listening, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if Zhao really let loose.  Good things, I'm betting.  The Andante is nicely paced and taut, and gives way to a generally zippy Allegro ma non troppo.  Zhao slows down in some passages and plays with superb clarity, though these passages lower the temperature a bit, though on the flip side, they heighten contrast between sections.  Opp 78 and 79 are both played somewhat light, and benefit from Zhao's clarity, and she even throws in some heavily accented treble notes and lets them ring out from time to time in 78.  Op 81a starts off slow and controlled, but then Zhao dashes off most of the opening movement in a most vibrant way, though the result is something more of a display of dexterity than depth.  The slightly rushed Andante offers more superficial excitement, and the final movement continues along the same path, though it must be said that Zhao peppers her playing with some most appealing accents and emphases.  Op 90's opening movement is swift and intense, and the second movement is haltingly lyrical.  In short, pretty good.  Disc eight is quite good.

The eighth disc of Nikolayeva's cycle opens with Op 90, offering yet another chance at an A/B comparison, and once again, Ms Nikolayeva's weaknesses are apparent.  Again, she gets the feeling right, but some slips and lack of control in loud passages render the first movement a chore to listen to, and the second movement just does not work well, lacking control and sufficient lyricism.  Op 101 seemed to me to be a sure-fire dud before hearing the first note, but the opening movement is quite fine, immediately establishing a transcendent, late-LvB soundworld, and it suffers from few slips.  Alas, the second movement is just a mess.  The Adagio is okay, and the Allegro, while sloppy, isn't as bad as the march.  101 is a bust.  109 is not quite as bad, but it is not at all good, either.  While again displaying an admirable spirit, it does not display admirable technique in the opening two movements, and in the final movement, Nikolayeva never establishes an adequate sense of transcendence, or anything, owing to the way too sloppy playing.  Another dud.  110 is a bit better, but that's not saying much here.  Disc eight is a whiff.

Zhao begins here traversal of the late sonatas in her ninth disc, and she does a creditable job of establishing a transcendent sound world in the opening movement of 101.  The March is superbly done: strikingly clear, powerful, with beefy bass (aided by the close microphones again), and with an at times almost danceable rhythmic sense, it's a blast.  The Adagio is also clear and nicely played, but also a bit calculated, a bit saccharine.  It's pseudo-profound.  The Allegro, played with energy similar to the March, also sounds similarly clear, but it also sounds uncommonly like early- to -middle period Beethoven in approach, somewhat limiting the impact of the playing.  The mighty Hammerklavier finds Zhao opting for the super-fast route to start – she plays the first movement in under ten minutes – and while she certainly plays in exciting and energetic fashion, she does not display the same sense of total command as either Stewart Goodyear or Michael Korstick, nor does she establish a truly grandly scaled feel, though that is no doubt partially the result of the close microphone placement.  Don't get me wrong, Zhao is not sloppy or weak or playing at the edge of her ability, she just doesn't seem to play at quite the same level as the other two pianists I mentioned, to say nothing of pianists going for a "slower" approach like Pollini or Serkin or St Annie or whichever other super-heavyweight one may prefer.  The second movement is also played at near-breakneck speed, and generates the same type of superficial excitement.  The great Adagio, taken at a middle of the road tempo of eighteen-ish minutes, is neither cool nor desolate nor deep in the early going, and Zhao opts to emphasize bass figurations in such a way as to present them as a sort of waltz.  As the movement progresses, the playing does become cooler, and Zhao lays bare every note in some extended passages, but she never really seems to delve much beneath the surface.  The Largo is dispatched with ease and style, and then Zhao launches into the fugue with relentless speed and energy, which when combined with her clarity, is most exciting.  Her left hand playing is a marvel at times.  The slow central passage is maybe just a bit stiff and uninvolving, but then she gets to play super fast-again.  This is the great fugue as great etude.  Disc nine is good. 

Nikolayeva's 106 opens the final disc in her set, and it's basically a train wreck.  The opening movement, at over fifteen minutes, is the slowest I have encountered, yet even at that glacial pace, Nikolayeva can't hit the notes properly.  It's bad, very bad.  Ditto the Scherzo.  The Adagio is a bit on the swift side at just shy of sixteen minutes, is not as bad, but it has little to recommend it.  The final movement Largo is OK, but the fugue is slow, labored, and if not as bad as the opening movement in terms of errors, it hardly measures up to the top eighty (or more) versions on the market.  Overall, it's the worst Op 106 I've heard.  Op 111, thankfully, fares better.  If the Maestoso and following Allegro hardly demonstrate anything close to note-perfect playing, Nikolayeva delivers a jarringly intense opener, dark and aggressive in its forward momentum.  The Arietta also displays just about the perfect spirit: serene and transcendent, yet with hints of tension throughout.  The variations are rushed, sloppy, with some of the most abrupt transitions I've heard, yet Nikolayeva presses forward through the movement with focus and purpose, favoring intensity over transcendent beauty.  The "little stars" section takes on a rare urgency, and the chain of trills, sometimes fading away to almost Yamane-esque quietude, are pretty well done.  The sonata ends on transcendent note, and represents one of the best performances in the cycle.  Disc nine is half terrible and half pretty good.

The final disc in Zhao's cycle ends with the final triptych.  Zhao handles the Vivace and Prestissimo of 109 with control, precision, and clarity as one might expect, though it seems a bit light. When she moves into the final movement, she plays the theme in muted, slow fashion, but the effect isn't so much profound as merely attractive.  As she progresses through the variations, she always plays well, but always a bit superficially.  Op 110 is similarly swift and lithe, though Zhao throws in some weightier bass registers to mix things up.  The last movement again seems to lack a bit of depth, and Zhao's propensity to play bass registers comparatively loud means that when the repeated chords arrive, she really doesn't have much to build up to, though the coda is thundering.  Op 111 opens with a dark Maestoso and swift, strong, occasionally cutting Allegro delivered with much energy, but strangely it's doesn't feel especially intense.  Zhao plays the Arietta beautifully, and the first two variations are nice enough, and the third packs a wallop.  The "little stars" section is played staccato and fast, rather robbing the music of something vital.  Zhao plays the first batch of trills with superb precision, and the final chain of trills are equally precise, played with superb dynamic control while the melody is presented with great clarity.  The coda is dispatched so quickly and uneventfully, though, that one is left to wonder if that's all there is.  Well, that is all there is.  For all the fine playing in the last sonatas, the superficiality render them not very competitive in a very competitive field.

Two more cycles down, and they are rather different.  Tatiana Nikolayeva more often plays the music with the right spirit, but her fingers betray her at almost every turn.  She was well past her prime in these recordings, and the incessant errors and lack of control render her cycle a dud.  I rate it among the worst cycles I've heard.  Had only she recorded the cycle perhaps ten or twenty or thirty years before.  Melodie Zhao is the opposite.  Her fingers do not betray her.  But she often seems to play with not quite the right spirit, particularly in the comparatively youthful sounding late sonatas.  I definitely prefer Ms Zhao to Ms Nikolayeva, but her cycle, well played as it is, is not a great one.  But.  Ms Zhao is young.  She has time.  A lot of it.  Who knows what she can develop into in ten or twenty or thirty years?  She is a talent to watch, or rather, to hear.  If she returns to Beethoven at some point in the future, I will eagerly listen to what she has to offer.  In the meantime, she strikes me as a core rep type of pianist, and I'd like to hear her in Brahms and Ravel.  Perhaps she could go more modern and play Messiaen or Ligeti.  Whatever she records, I'm pretty sure I'll be listening to her in coming years. 

To sound: Tatiana Nikolayeva's set was recorded in concerts throughout 1984, and the sound is a bit distant, the tone a bit harsh, and the overall sound not at all state of the art, even for the time.  Melodie Zhao's cycle is close to SOTA, but the very close sound limits dynamics a bit and results in bass that is just a bit too prominent. 

[Holden]

I listened to a goodly part of Zhao's cycle and it was interesting to see that you picked what I thought was one of the major issues with her playing - a limited dynamic range. Listening to just one sonata this is not too much of a problem but when it is inherent in all the sonatas, a sense of monotony ensues.

I suspect that this is something endemic in many of today's young pianists, technique to burn but very little musical imagination. If she hasn't got it now, will she ever really have it?