Even the trills are meaningful with pianist Maria João Pires ★★★★☆

Unfortunately, we have to start this review with a correction. In the tips for the weekend section in Volkskrant Magazine we tipped the recital by Maria João Pires in Muziekgebouw Eindhoven. It contained the following sentence: “She comes with Schubert (she is very good at that), Beethoven and Debussy (also good at).” Monday evening it turned out that we were wrong, because it was the other way around. Schubert and Debussy: good at it. Beethoven: very good at.

Pires opens with Schuberts Sonata in A (number 13). Most visitors in the sold-out hall will be familiar with her sound-oriented, sincere playing style. Pires has been around for a while, stopped every now and then and was suddenly there again. You can hear the Pires for which you buy a ticket in the slow middle section: even at the age of 77, she knows exactly how to find the right ratio between the tones in every chord. But she does little to really shape the melodic figures. You long for something more pronounced rhythm.

Claude Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque is visual with Pires, but can be more pronounced, richer in contrast. In the Clair de lune you hear the room go quiet. But it is Beethoven’s 32nd and last piano sonata, after the intermission, that will stay with us. If the composer asks for a little more speed, you have the idea that not all passages come out as intended. But the threat in her game makes sure we don’t want to miss a thing.

Then when a slower part comes again, everything changes by magic. The Arietta is understated, graceful and exciting; even the thrillers are meaningful. After a heartfelt applause, she plays it as an encore adagio cantabile from Beethoven’s pathetic like a dream.