It has become a cliche to talk of the valedictory nature of the three piano sonatas that Schubert composed in his final months, as if they expressed some kind of musical death wish. Freddy Kempf's performance of the late A major Sonata began as a welcome corrective to this morbid view. Rather than world-weary resignation, his phrasing in the first movement was guided by youthful impetuosity. The benefits of this approach were a mercurial energy and unpredictability, but there were problems with it too. He made Schubert's complex narrative sound fragmentary and diffuse. The extraordinary transformation of the main theme at the end of the movement was robbed of its fragile poetry.
Kempf's approach to the slow movement could not have been more different. He turned Schubert's delicate Andantino into a lugubrious dirge. Every accent sounded like a stab to the heart, particularly at his slow, grim tempo. The drama of the music collapsed under the expressive strain that he made it bear. And yet the stormy central section - some of the most impassioned music Schubert ever wrote - was curiously underpowered. In the finale, however, Kempf's liquid tone matched Schubert's seamless lines superbly. There was no doubting the technical prowess, but Kempf's interpretation is, as yet, uneven and inconsistent.
As if attempting one of Schubert's most imposing masterpieces were not enough, Kempf's second half presented all four of Chopin's ballades. These pinnacles of the piano repertoire challenge every aspect of technique and musicality. But Kempf's performances were satisfying neither as musical experiences nor as virtuosic showpieces. The languid opening theme of the First Ballade was full of quirky moments of phrasing and emphasis, but in the huge cascades at the end of the piece he lost control of the work's shape and line. It was as if he was trying to play the piece as fast as possible, but the result was an impressionistic blur of notes rather than an impressive display of technique. Each of the ballades suffered from the same lack of focus, and the sense that speed and bravura were more important than drama and structure.
