Volume 6 of Marius Papadopoulos's recordings of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas is of such quality that it prompted reminiscence. I first heard this pianist in a master-class given in London's Purcell Room by Ilona Kabos, a 'Grande dame' who struck awe into her audience('Madame is wearing green today!') and whose comments, while never less than engaging could lack encouragement('you play, and I am the cold shower to follow'), But she understandably had a soft spot for Papadopoulos who excelled in the Gershwin Concerto. Later at his first major recital given in the Queen Elizabeth Hall he mischievously added Lecuona's 'Malaguena' as an encore, showing a magical talent for Cuban sensuous charm.
Throughout the years his career has radically changed and expanded and he is now celebrated in Oxford for bringing to 'the city of dreaming spires' a musical richness it previously lacked. The good and the great have visited Oxford performing at his piano festival and appearing as soloists under his conductorship with the Oxford Philharmonic.
I mention all this because the many years of experience are almost palpably evident in his latest recording. He finds all the grace and playfulness of opus 31 No 1 whether in the opening question and answer, in the gentle cascade and quirky reply or in the long and decorative lines of the central 'adagio grazioso.' Again, in the concluding 'allegretto' nothing will tempt him to force the pace. Everything has time to breathe and tell; this is supremely civilized Beethoven.
Yet there is an urgency inseparable from minor key Beethoven in the D minor Sonata(it comes with the composer's baffling advice to read Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' for comprehension). From Papadopoulos you re-experience those mysterious drum beats or timpani strokes in the central 'Adagio' and also a curious prophecy of Liszt's 'Les jeux d'eau a la Villa d'Este in the whirling, moto perpetuo finale.
For Beethoven scholar Marian Scott the opening of opus No 3 in E flat is like 'an evening star tapping at the casement window,' and, again, Papadopoulos makes you question the so-called division between Bethoven's 'Dionysian' and Mozart's 'Apollonian' genius. The reverse of the hardened virtuoso he makes you love and re-consider music you thought you had always known.
Bryce Morrison