

For the next post in the Asian Invasion, I decided to do a quasi-A/B with another new addition to my collection. Here, the A/B is with Beethoven's Op 106, comparing the heretofore superb Alessio Bax (superb in Brahms, Mussorgsky, Scriabin, and Mozart) and newcomer Sunwook Kim.
I started with Bax. Bax opens with a broad 'n' big Allegro in 106, coming in at just under eleven minutes. Bax manages to evoke both a quasi-orchestral sound in the forte passages and more intimate sound in the quieter music, which he plays relatively slowly. Most important and successful here, he makes his specific tempo choices make sense and transitions flawlessly within the context of his overall approach. Generally speaking, the Scherzo more than occasionally sounds like an extension of the first movement, usually quicker and played in bursts, but Bax does more with it than most. The passages are fully differentiated, and Bax very much makes it sound like a musical joke more akin to something out of 31/3, stylistically speaking. Very nice. The Adagio is on the slow side at near nineteen minutes, and Bax keeps it mostly subdued with melody generally prominent. His often subdued left hand playing allows him to create a nice effect near the end as he gently increases left hand volume to overtake the right. Bax plays the Largo somewhat like the Scherzo, with slightly exaggerated accents and contrasts, but to superb effect, and then moves to a limber, quick, and clear fugue. Perhaps this Op 106 does not display a lot of the late LvB soundworld I tend to prefer, but Bax's approach and execution are sufficiently well done so that it doesn't matter. The Mondschein follows, and here Bax plays the opening Adagio sostenuto briskly, with nervous but gentle forward momentum, moves to a lovely, gently rocking Allegretto, and then plays the Presto agitato with satisfying heft and speed, with his left hand playing mostly held back a bit, rumbling and bubbling just beneath the musical surface. An excellent performance, if not necessarily a top twenty choice. Bax then closes the disc with two of his own transcriptions of music from
The Ruins of Athens, including a new one for the Turkish March, and both would make for nice enough encores. Superb sound with more than a few instances of damper noise.
Kim opens his disc with the Waldstein. The opening Allegro con brio is taken at a more or less standard tempo, not too fast and not too slow, and Kim's digital dexterity is obvious. All is clear. But all is also sort of plain. There's not much expressiveness for all the neatness, and one minor item is his terraced dynamics. When the paying should build up to the loudest passages, there's not a lot of variegation at the loud end of the spectrum. The loud playing is perfectly controlled and never ugly, but it's kind of one-note, as it were. The very clean and clear and measured Introduzione is definitely on the unexpressive side, and transitions to a Rondo that only occasionally generates excitement, and often finds Kim playing deliberately. The sonata is undeniably well executed. It's also dull. Like Bax, Kim starts his Hammerklavier with an eleven minute Allegro. Kim's playing is more direct and displays less in the way of dynamic or tempo flexibility or attention to detail. It sounds a tad aggressive and quasi-orchestral, all to he good, augmented by the loud but limited dynamic range playing. The Allegretto sounds more compressed and forceful than the opener, to the good. Kim then plays one of the swiftest Adagios out there at a taut 14'32". It starts off tense, and then for about two minutes after about 6'30", it becomes almost jittery, and the clarity of voices is quite striking. After that, when many or most versions become more desolate and searching, Kim keeps his playing tense and more intimate. Around 11'30" or so, he begins to play in a more desolate style, which ends up being brief as he ratchets up tension nicely and then plays the climax potently. This is evidence that the Adagio need not always be slow. Kim ends the sonata by starting with a restrained Largo and a clear Fugue that somehow manages to be played a decent clip yet still sound a bit stodgy. Sound is close and clear and a little hard, and dynamics seem to suffer a bit, which is a bit odd given that this was recorded at the Jesus Christus Kirche in Berlin in 2015.
I definitely, and by a wide margin, prefer the Bax disc in this shootout. Now I have to consider whether or not to hear Kim in recital next season playing the Diabellis. He's got the chops to do it, but I'm on the fence. Maybe his newer LvB disc can help me decide.