The music itself is magnificent. Brahms' early Piano Sonata F minor is surely one of the great Romantic sonatas and certainly Brahms' most Romantic piano work, and the two late sets of piano pieces are surely some of the most nostalgic piano music and certainly among Brahms' most intimate piano works. The question is: how does Jon Nakamatsu perform them? Nakamatsu has turned in many virtuosic recordings on Harmonia Mundi in the years since he won the Van Cliburn Competition and there was never any doubt about his ability to play Brahms' virtuosic piano music. But virtuosity is the means and not the end, and while the pianist must have the technique to play the monumental opening and closing movements of the Sonata in F minor, he must also have the ability to make the lines sing with intimate expression and the harmonies sound the depths of the human heart. Fortunately, Nakamatsu not only plays the notes supremely well, he also gets beneath and above and beyond the notes. In the Sonata, Nakamatsu has the strength for the outer movements, the lyricism for the slow movement, the power for the Scherzo, and, best of all, the expressivity for the heartbroken Intermezzo. In the late piano music, Nakamatsu expresses the music's nostalgia and its poetry with a tone of profound intimacy. Harmonia Mundi's 2004 digital sound is clean, vivid, and a bit dry, like a fine white wine.
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