Word: ohlsson
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...rondo finale was more or less nondescript. Ohlsson's dynamics seemed to lose subtlety here, and the first melody assumed an unseemly complacency. The movement offered a strange glimpse of what sort of Schubert pianist Ohlsson might...
...beginning of the Beethoven Sonata in G (Op. 31 No. 1) Ohlsson's fingerwork was troublingly sloppy, at least compared to his voicing; but this may have been a matter of adjusting to the piano. He took the opening allegro a good sight slower than the indicated vivace, but used the broadened canvas to play around with all its quirky syncopations...
Conversely, his adagio was more of an allegretto and here he may have been a little too playful. Ohlsson spun out long melodic lines, though his pedalling was admirably spare; and though the rhythm of the variations changed in predictable ways, his phrasing was never predictable...
...Liszt sonata was another matter. Though not obvious at first, Ohlsson's approach to its many challenges was informed by a tight sense of musical architecture: emerging from all the kleptomaniacal rubati and enigmatic autofermatas was a storyteller's confidence. His fingerings were uncommon, his attack was lively bordering on sadistic, and he seemed to be thinking orchestrally all the way. Here if anywhere, "large and in charge" was the apt phrase--the big man put a whole register in the bass out of tune. Blending the bombastic and the priestly, Ohlsson made the 1854 warhorse sound fresh...
...second half of the recital was all Chopin, a calculation made no doubt in part on the success of Ohlsson's recordings for the Arabesque label. The Op. 46 Allegro de Concert in A is an exceedingly unpianistic work, and Ohlssonis performance was less than motivated, but at least he was about to make some sense of it. His ferocity in the chromatic runs recalled his excellent performance of the finale of the Second Piano Concerto...