Beethoven: Moto perpetuo (2012)

Pianist Javier Perianes is one of the most exciting new players on the Spanish scene, having issued a well-reviewed Schubert recital and a terrific collection of Mompou's music that captures its elusive combination of almost vanishing minimalism and hair-trigger tension. Moving into the black belt realm of Beethoven, he offers an album with a rather strange concept, inadequately defended in the booklet notes. "Moto perpetuo" or perpetual motion may indeed be defined as a steady stream of rapid musical notes, but that ... Read More

Pianist Javier Perianes is one of the most exciting new players on the Spanish scene, having issued a well-reviewed Schubert recital and a terrific collection of Mompou's music that captures its elusive combination of almost vanishing minimalism and hair-trigger tension. Moving into the black belt realm of Beethoven, he offers an album with a rather strange concept, inadequately defended in the booklet notes. "Moto perpetuo" or perpetual motion may indeed be defined as a steady stream of rapid musical notes, but that description could cover a great many finales by Beethoven and other composers, and there's nothing particularly distinctive about the four chosen here. In no way does the use of moto perpetuo "[presuppose] totally renouncing the relationship with spoken language and declamation," as annotator Luca Chiantore has it here; ever since there has been independent instrumental music, there have been musicians who have cultivated a purely virtuosic style with little relationship to song and... Read Less