CD Feature/ Christiane Klonz: "Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Shostakovich"
TobiasAs could be expected, even a professional like Klonz has her favourite parts. Bach’s character, for example, fits her like a glove and she slips into it as smoothly as if it were a silken kimono. Her take on the “Partita II c-moll” is airy and effortless and can do without any overt dramatics. Her interpretation is slender and lucid, focussing on transparency in harmonic progressions and clarity in melodic lines. It is an unsentimental performance, which possibly brings out the implicit sentimentality of the material best.
Mozart, too, is a composer whose music has accompanied Klonz for her entire career. To her, his musical personality has little in common with the extrovert savant genial depicted by Milos Forman in “Amadeus”. Instead, she sees him as a man with a great sensibility, as someone whose neural system was susceptible to the smallest external influence. Consequently, her rendition of the “Sonate F-Major, KV 280” is built around the swooningly slow middle movement, an oneiric circle dance between major and minor keys, between hope and despair, rebellion and acceptance.
It takes more time to adjust to her take on the faster-paced outer movements. Klonz enjoys the technical aspects of the music, aiming for fluency and a weightless tone, eschewing both pseudo-Viennese sentimentalities and the typical carefree approach of some colleagues, which mostly ends up sounding forced. On the other hand, it is sometimes hard to refute the impression that this music could do with a little less regularity and grace. Her rendition suggests that Mozart’s was a split personality, which only a slightly schizophrenic stance can fully do justice to.
The same can be said for her Shostakovich, which at first seems to lack a little density and drama in the opening segment, but comes back with a vengeance in the second and third movements. In the “Lento”, Klonz navigates through a black ocean of uncertainty, enigmatically staying clear of the seemingly safe shoreline. In the closing “Allegro”, meanwhile, she pounds the keys as if in a frenzy, dangerously close of loosing it – but always remaining in full control.
You may not agree with everything Klonz does here and I can’t help but feel that it is about time she recorded a more wilfull program. But there is no denying she has managed to lend a unique sound to each and every piece she performs. As soon as the first note of Chopin’s “Grande Polonaise brillante” is struck, you’re suddenly in a world of timbre, of fine nuances and delicate whispers, of sunbeams breaking spectrally on the surface of a quiet lake. That is what playing a role all about – and Klonz proves to be a powerful actor in many different roles.
By Tobias Fischer
Homepage: claXL Records
Homepage: Christiane Klonz
Related articles
Ingrid Fliter: Complete Chopin Waltzes a "Kaleidoscope of Life"
Gilmore Artist Award winner Ingrid ...
2009-12-14
Gilmore Artist Award winner Ingrid ...
2009-12-14
Concert Review/ Gustavo Dudamel & Berliner Philharmoniker & Glorious Percussion Ensemble
Live at the Berliner Philharmonie, ...
2009-09-19
Live at the Berliner Philharmonie, ...
2009-09-19
Concert Report/ Ewa Kupiec & Osnabrück Symphonics
Live at the Osnabrückhalle, Osnabrück, ...
2009-08-25
Live at the Osnabrückhalle, Osnabrück, ...
2009-08-25
Vladimir Ashkenazy/ Maurizio Pollini : "Chopin - Etudes op. 10 & 25"
No definitive answers: A Piano ...
2009-08-24
No definitive answers: A Piano ...
2009-08-24
CD Feature/ Bruno Weil & Capella Coloniensis: "Mozart - Demofoonte"
You can always dream: An ...
2008-11-21
You can always dream: An ...
2008-11-21
Christiane Klonz: “Mozart – Beethoven – Liszt – Klonz”
Simmering tension: Perilously close to ...
2008-01-16
Simmering tension: Perilously close to ...
2008-01-16
CD Feature/ Christiane Klonz: "Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt"
A comeback in style: Klonz' ...
2007-06-21
A comeback in style: Klonz' ...
2007-06-21