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Fanfare

Japanese-American pianist Tamami Honma hails from the San Francisco Bay area and teaches at university music departments at Stanford and Santa Clara. This is her first entry in Fanfare, and she gets introduced not with a whimper but a big bang: the complete 35 piano sonatas of Beethoven. Yes, that’s right, 35 sonatas, not just 32, because she has included some juvenilia: the three so-called “Bonn Sonatas,” likely composed when Beethoven was 12 or 13 years old, aka the “Kurfürst” sonatas, WoO 47, because they were dedicated to the Prince-Elector (German: Kurfürst) of the Holy Roman Empire, Maximilian Friedrich, Archbishop of Cologne. 

This handsome 10 CD set includes an equally handsome rarity (nowadays, at least): a reasonably thick booklet with detailed and informative annotations by Julian Brown. (Brown is a British-born violinist who in recent years has performed all 10 Beethoven violin sonatas with Honma, with whom he cofounded a chamber group known as the Cal Arte Ensemble, so in addition to excellent notes on the music, his information about the pianist is presumptively reliable.) He explains that Honma has used, as her playing edition, the one edited by British musicologist and Beethoven scholar Barry Cooper and published by Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. That edition incorporates numerous revisions, even of notes themselves from time to time, but more often of phrasing, dynamics, pedaling, and accent marks. I have not studied that edition, but it may well account for her predilection, throughout the cycle, for staccato textures even at junctures where—according to the Lieber/von Bülow, Schenker, Casella, and Arrau editions, among others—there are no staccato indications in the score. 

While I may not always agree with Honma’s interpretive choices, all of them are clearly delineated and stylishly played, in a manner that makes her Steinway concert grand sound at times a little bit like a fortepiano. If I had to choose two adjectives to describe Honma’s Beethoven set, it would be “elegant” but, at the same time, “quirky.” I mean “quirky” in a good way, one in which she underscores many of Beethoven’s (often equally quirky) humorous touches. Honma does not overpedal anything in her Beethoven. Her legato lines are well delineated, even though she seems frequently to prefer a staccato texture, what one might call détaché if she were playing a violin. 

Let’s get the “Bonn Sonatas” out of the way, before moving to the canonical 32. These three are well played, but Honma’s artfulness reveals their compositional immaturity. They are nice to hear at least once in your life, but they are eminently forgettable. On, now, to the remaining nine discs. 

Let’s start with some highlights of the early sonatas. Her set of the three op. 2 sonatas is sprightly. Although I would prefer stronger sforzandos at the conclusion of the first movement of op. 2/1, her finale is tremendously exciting, and her right-hand figurations in the finale of op. 2/2 are even and pearlescent. All the scherzos in that set are witty and satisfying. The huge op. 7 could be more exciting, but apart from that gets a superb performance. The finale of op. 10/1 likewise could be more exciting, but Honma certainly captures throughout that set the humor of Beethoven’s rhythmic gestures. She plays the middle movement of op. 10/2 slower than I have ever heard it, reminiscent of some of Richter’s idiosyncratic choices in Beethoven and Schubert. She abandons all caution in the Presto finale, however, and the performance—perhaps a tad faster than she can comfortably manage—is one that Annie Fischer and Walter Gieseking would envy and is a full minute faster than other pianists, including Arrau. 

The “Funeral March” and the two op. 27 sonatas (each quasi una fantasia, the second being the famous “Moonlight”) are very deftly performed, with elegantly contrasted passages. My only complaint in the “Moonlight” is that, despite her typically scrupulous adherence to the printed page, she falls into the trap that ensnares many a pianist of rhythmic inaccuracy in the three vs. four pattern of the first movement theme. In the measures expounding that famous theme, there is just a dotted eighth note, followed by a 16th note, in the soprano line on the fourth beat of the measure in the right hand, offset against a triplet. Mathematically, the 16th note should come almost immediately after the third note of the triplet is played. Instead, many pianists treat is as though it were a double-dotted, not a single-dotted, eighth note. Honma is even at the extreme end of this rhythmic displacement. The slow movement of the “Pastoral” is faster than expected, but all told that particular sonata is played with great serenity and lyricism until the closing romp in the finale. 

Moving to the middle period, the three op. 31 sonatas are a treat. Honma adroitly captures the playful rhythmic displacement of op. 31/1 and delivers a passionate and powerful first movement of the “Tempest.” I think she takes some undue risks in the breakneck acceleration she employs in the scherzo and finale of the “Hunt” sonata. One does not expect perfection across so gargantuan an undertaking as the complete Beetho­ven cycle. Thus some disappointments are inevitable. For me, the “Appassionata” and the op. 79 fell into that category. 

In the late sonatas, Honma takes some chances in the “Les Adieux” and gets away with them. This contrasts with the op. 90, which is a little dull and metronomic, but the op. 101, particularly the hair-raising finale, is excellent, if a bit circumspect in the risk-taking department. Also quite circumspect, even disappointingly so, is her playing of much of the “Hammerklavier.” After a fierce beginning to the first movement, the performance devolves into one that is generally uninflected and unexciting, just seeming to be going through the motions and happy to survive the many demands of the piece without calamity. On the other hand, I found the final three sonatas to be very poised, by turns elegant where appropriate and passionate where required. 

At the end of the day, however, these quibbles are insignificant in the face of Honma’s achievement in this Beethoven cycle. Make no mistake: This is very distinguished musicianship and very beautiful Beethoven playing. I am delighted to become acquainted, via this release, with this talented artist. Honma has evidently given these performances a great deal of thought and preparation, and the result is an emotionally and intellectually satisfying Beethoven cycle. Urgently recommended.