Gramophone Review of Pianist Steven Masi

Laurence Vittes    October 11, 2013

Vol. 1 beginning with an op. 28 which invests Beethoven’s rich episodic scheming with a deeply moving emotional vulnerability. Masi appropriately abandons the spacious structures which work so effectively in Op. 28 in order to explore the hedonistic wilds of op. 79, a performance highlighted by numerous touches such as the delicious grace notes at the end of the first movement and a nearly motionless beauty in the second. Even in the concluding Vivace, the virtuosity which Masi flashes so effortlessly gives way to moments of exquisite poetry. In the Pathetique, Masi and the recording team capture the colours of the piano to an extraordinary degree.