Olli Mustonen is always a celebrated guest in Australian concert halls. Of his performances at this year’s Adelaide Festival, he repeated one programme, titled ‘Beethoven's Appassionata’, for a small but fortunate audience at The Neilson, the glorious, recently built, wood-panelled auditorium of the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
Mustonen’s artistry tends to stimulate widely divergent reactions from his audiences. His profound musical intelligence invariably leaves a mark, whether he composes, conducts or plays the piano. His musicianship is unusual and confronting. While countless playlists provide poignant “best-of” melodies of Beethoven piano sonatas, it is almost unimaginable to listen to his interpretation of any of the four sonatas he played on Saturday as lovely background music, next to a candlelit dinner.
Notwithstanding the distinctly traditional programming, the ambience of this concert was anything but traditional. That soon became obvious to all, what, with the refreshingly free shaping of the melodies of the first movement of the Piano Sonata no. 1 in F minor, almost completely devoid of pedalling. Beethoven’s clear and specific markings were meticulously observed from staccatos to the rolled fortissimo chords, pauses and sudden dynamic changes – one seldom hears them read so carefully. Read, interpreted and even reinterpreted, for Mustonen, constantly and without any sign of hesitation, offers his musical opinion about the flow of the music. This is why a phrase returning later may appear quite different from its first iteration or why some robust sounds come out from under his fingers at times as excessively loud, even jarring.
By the time our ears had become accustomed to the dry sounds of the Allegro first movement (a reminder perhaps of the Beethoven-era fortepiano?), the following Adagio provided the opposite: a plethora of generous pedalling, with even neighbouring notes sounding occasionally together. Nothing was left to chance though, with Mustonen in complete control of his keyboard: here, provocatively harsh, there, beautifully delicate, and nowhere as tender as in the barely whispered last two pianissimo chords of that movement (the first of those containing a rather incredible nine notes!). The Menuetto came through as moody and reflective and the Prestissimo seemed to relish in all the dynamic excesses written but seldom fully explored in the score.
The Piano Sonata no. 2 in A major followed with similarly powerful musical statements, frequently alternating between completely dry and emphatically pedalled sections. The artist took care presenting the composer’s often extreme-sounding instructions, mostly with extremely convincing results. A good illustration of this was the opening of the Largo appassionato where the score instructs the right hand to be tenuto sempre, while the left hand simultaneously has to provide maximal contrast with staccato sempre. The elf-like opening of the Scherzo contrasted elegantly with the previous sonata’s Menuetto (that being a dance form Beethoven quickly gave away for his faster Scherzos). The Rondo’s theme was a sheer delight, written and interpreted in subtly different ways.
The F major Sonata, Op.54, with its two-movement structure is one of Beethoven‘s shortest. If the first movement’s canonic double octaves shocked anyone, it may be due to Mustonen taking (again!) the score’s specific instruction seriously: sempre forte e staccato. The never-ceasing flow of fast semiquavers in the final movement with many sudden accents perfectly created the unsettling moto perpetuo feel, so appropriate to this work.
As it started, the concert finished with a sonata in F minor: this time, with the famous Appassionata. Its impassioned performance encapsulated Mustonen’s enormous range of expressions: startling contrasts (often simultaneously) between hands, melodies and dynamics; sensitive rubatos consistently applied; exceptional musical turbulence regularly tamed to the gentlest sounds. While occasionally offering solace, even a feel of catharsis, this was a constantly challenging evening.
