COMPOSERS: Ullmann
LABELS: CPO
WORKS: Piano Sonata No. 5; Pano Sonata No. 6; Piano Sonata No. 7
PERFORMER: Gregor Weichert (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: 999 087-2 DDD
On this well-recorded CPO disc what strikes one is the renewed classicism that lent strength to Ullmann’s late piano writing. The harmonic language is mixed: abreast of Scriabin and Debussy, equally able to launch into a cocky cakewalk or blistering (if unsustained) Regerian fugue at will. Weichert makes a good advocate: poised, unshowy, like the pieces themselves dry in places, but finding the poetry as well, and not overegging the rubato. Short on length: the (weaker) Koch version offers Ullmann’s Third Quartet too. Roderic Dunnett
Ullmann: Piano Sonata No. 5; Pano Sonata No. 6; Piano Sonata No. 7
On this well-recorded CPO disc what strikes one is the renewed classicism that lent strength to Ullmann’s late piano writing. The harmonic language is mixed: abreast of Scriabin and Debussy, equally able to launch into a cocky cakewalk or blistering (if unsustained) Regerian fugue at will. Weichert makes a good advocate: poised, unshowy, like the pieces themselves dry in places, but finding the poetry as well, and not overegging the rubato. Short on length: the (weaker) Koch version offers Ullmann’s Third Quartet too. Roderic Dunnett
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:06 pm