Search - Daniel Barenboim, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Fryderyk Chopin :: Daniel Barenboim Live From the Teatro Colon 2000

Recorded August 19th, 2000 at the Téatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Daniel Barenboim's recital commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of his debut (at age seven) yields uneven results. In Beethoven's "Appassionata" Sonata, for instance, the pianist is below his best form. In contrast to his more controlled (and better engineered) DG recording, Barenboim forgoes the finale's essential repeat, and pounds his way through the coda with no pretense to subtlety. He swoons over Scarlatti's D Minor "Pastorale" sonata, and lays heavily into the C Major (K. 159) Sonata's dancing patterns. Mozart's K. 330 Sonata in the same key comes alive through Barenboim's witty, incisive way with the Finale. Following an iron-bound, charmless Schubert F Minor Moment musical, Barenboim positively sings out Schumann's Des Abends and the Chopin F Minor Etude and D-flat Nocturne. The Resta, Ginastera, and Villa-Lobos encores are played to the hilt, with all the idiomatic élan they deserve. --Jed Distler