"You need a lot of technique to take Ludwig van Beethoven at his word. On Sunday afternoon, pianist Emanuel Ax tackled the familiar yet formidable "Waldstein" Sonata in C Major (Op. 53), and he achieved the not inconsiderable feat of letting the music speak for itself, in all its stubborn, maddening glory."
Thus begins Matthew Guerrieri's Boston Globe review of Emanuel Ax's recital this past Sunday. I hope I don't come off as a sycophant (or something) when I say I really, enjoy reading Guerrieri - especially when he, you know, writes the stuff I want to hear, like how good one a Celebrity Series concert was. But it's more than that. Take this sentence from Wednesday's Emanuel Ax review:
"In between the sonatas was music by Robert Schumann, whose mercurial, protean forms were well-served by Ax's direct, robust phrasing: He immediately found the core of each new mood, making vibrant and entrancing what, in lesser hands, could be merely attention-deficient."
Read the full review, it won't substitute for Ax's concert, which was every bit as remarkable as described, but it is a good read, which is an end in itself.
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