Beethoven: Piano Sonatas CD review – Angela Hewitt is thoughtful and nuanced

Angela Hewitt is not a pianist to overuse the sustaining pedal, and the well-defined playing she tends towards in this, the sixth disc of her Beethoven sonata series, works for and against her. Closing the first movement of Op 14 No 1, the first sonata on the disc, her almost percussive touch gives the melody a gleeful swing. But in Les Adieux, Op 81a, she plays the big octave leap of the allegro theme as though she’s about to hurl herself off a diving board: Beethoven’s expansive gesture doesn’t sing the way it surely should. Hewitt’s fast unison passages can have a blustery feel that means the transition into the final movement doesn’t quite dazzle. Yet it’s apt in Op 31 No 1, earlier on the disc, and there is much thoughtful and nuanced playing to savour in all five works here, not least the two little Op 49 sonatas.