Thomas Beijer and Nicolas van Poucke: Mozart: Sonatas for four hands
TRPTK

Liner notes typically illuminate a recording's contents with a serious, analytical overview. Those included with Thomas Beijer and Nicolas van Poucke's Mozart release are striking for adopting an entirely different approach, in this case an irreverent one styled in the form of a humorous screenplay recounting the evolution of the young pianists' friendship and working relationship. In the first act, the pianists are eighteen and twenty-two, the first “energetic and enthusiastic as a puppy,” the second “a little cynical with a dark look, in which, nevertheless, fun lights often twinkle.” They bicker like an old married couple as they play Mozart's Sonata in B-flat major, KV 358, the work as youthful as the pianists tackling it; a brief second act follows in which, ten years later, they reach the decision to record the material featured on the release. Such a fresh liner notes concept is in keeping with the spirit of their playing on the release, which exudes camaraderie and affection for the music the composer created.

Beijer (b. 1988) and van Poucke (b. 1992) are, in fact, good friends who've known each other for over fifteen years and regularly visit for pleasure but also to play music and offer feedback on each other's playing. They're also highly regarded musicians who've received numerous awards, including the Dutch Music Prize recently awarded to Beijer. They've performed works for four hands by Mozart and Schubert for more than a decade and presented their first quatre-mains recital in Amsterdam in 2012; the pandemic brought them to focus on Mozart's four-handed sonatas, which in turn led to the December 2021 recording session at Westvestkerk in Schiedam.

Written in 1773-74 when Mozart was still a teen, the Sonata in B-flat major, KV 358 advances from an effervescent opening movement into a lyrical second, the sophistication and maturity of the writing striking given the composer's age at the time of its creation. The first movement in the Sonata in F major, KV 497 (1786) builds from a ruminative intro into an expression of dynamic force and imagination, after which the central andante delivers its wise song with consummate grace before a rousing allegro brings a satisfying resolution. The Sonata in C major, KV 521 (1787) leaps into action with a towering allegro, sweetens it with a lovely andante, and crowns it with the irresistibly enticing melodies of its allegretto.

Quatre-mains playing demands, naturally, that the performers be in complete sync as they play, something Beijer and van Poucke accomplish throughout the sixty-six minute recording. In fact, their voices blend so seamlessly, it's easy to forget that two pianists are performing as opposed to one. That connection never lapses, whether it be in the music's uptempo passages or during its rubato ones. The precision with which they alternate patterns in the closing movement of the F major sonata and play in unison during the first movement of the C major are merely two examples illustrating their dexterity.

February 2023