Twenty-seven-year-old Chinese pianist Tianxu An is an exceptional pianist. His performances of all three Sonatas by Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Schumann celebrate their breaking with convention and origins with an immaculate command and precision. He has an unfailing sense of Mendelssohn's urbanity, making you aware of the latter's disapproval of composers who 'went too far'( Mendelssohn exclaimed in horror over Chopin's audacity in the finale from his B flat minor Sonata; thus, 'as music I abhor it.'), yet within his more restricted terms his Sonata is full of the spirit of adventure. The second movement 'tempo di menuetto' is as piquant a it is graceful, the fourth movement 'Molto allegro e vivace' of high- flying virtuosity given by An with enviable polish and assurance. He makes it difficult to imagine a finer performance(even from Murray Perahia whose playing of this Sonata at the Leeds Competition played at major part in his triumph)
An launches Beethoven's two movement opus 78 Sonata(a favourite of the composer's) with all of his characteristic poise, before continuing with a finale just that bit too fast, so that Beethoven's mischief-making is less than fully realised.
Over fast tempi also blur Schumann's wild interplay of his two most dearly loved fictions, Florestan(the man of action) and Eusebius(the man of dreams). In the F sharp minor Sonata. Schumann was too bound up in his own fantasy and vision to care a fig for the pianist's safety and both here and in the Third Sonata(the so-called 'Concerto sans Orchestre') the writing presents many pianistic thorns and acrobatics. But again, if the Sonata can sound more strenuous than fluent(as it does, for example, from Claudio Arrau)_ every problem is by-passed by An with all of his executional skill. It is only when you turn to Emil Gilels recording and also to a London performance given by Federico Colli that you miss a higher degree of imaginative daring.
Yet to say this is to be hyper-critical. An is already blessed with an immaculate command of both technique and musicianship. Signum's sound is excellent, and their disc includes a four-page essay by the pianist.
Bryce Morrison