Latvian pianist Andrejs Osokins (b. 1984) presents a program of introspective, impassioned scores from the Baroque to the late Romantic periods. The Bach prelude and fugue set the plaintive melancholy tone that will often recur in other composers’ sensibilities. The resonant bass of Osokins’ Bechstein piano enunciates low, chromatic threads of the Fugue in D-sharp, whose voices enter and lie upon each other as in a sad motet. Later, the upper voice’s individual notes assume the character of a hopeful chorale. Conceived in the early 1780’s, the Haydn Sonata was clearly intended for the relatively new piano-forte, rather than the harpsichord. The Adagio proffers an ornamental arioso, long-lined and rife with pert harmonizations at the ends of phrases. A series of trills and silences leads seamlessly to the Molto vivace finale, with bouncy, fanciful variants on the original, eight-bar phrase.
In the 1805 Appassionata, Osokins plays the work’s opening with a tempered marcato (emphasis), basking in the harmony that sets the main ingredients: the “fateful” rhythmic pulse, trill, chromatic runs, pedal points, and airy melody. The last flurry of the “fate” motif truly cuts loose volcanically before the music fades away ppp. The 2nd mvmt’s “improvisatory” theme constantly returns to D-flat, confining the melodic content and harmonic syntax. The demonic 3rd mvmt arpeggios and clashing staccato notes assume a symphonic dimension. The music suggests an “oceanic” or tempestuous, natural phenomenon.