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Fanfare

In a marketplace crowded with sets of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, many are good and some superb, but it is rare to find one that is unique. The more I listen to Tamami Honma’s traversal of all 35 sonatas, including the three so-called Bonn sonatas, the more Blake’s doors of perception open to their Protean narratives. Now, I hear Honma’s as a confluence of micro and macrocosmic layers. Take the opening of the “Pastoral” sonata as a relatively simplistic manifestation of Honma’s pianistic virtues by homing in on the left hand. Is that a drone or a pulse? Of course, it’s both, but the subtleties of articulation underpinning the chorale-like harmonies confound and delight. The cycle resonates with similar moments as difficult to describe as to categorize as she conflates eras and national styles in a project as thoroughly researched as it is expertly performed. Yes, Honma is an excellent pianist, virtuosity aplenty evident where needed, but it is her scrupulous interpretation that makes each listening experience as unique as her approach to pieces suddenly unfamiliar.