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(++++) BRAHMS AND BEYOND

Brahms’ own later pieces, however, often have a succinctness that in no way reduces their communicative potential. In particular, his final four works for solo piano, Opp. 116-119, are intimate, personal, nostalgic, mostly quiet, and very much unlike his earlier, expansive, virtuosic and large-scale piano music. Pianist Steven Masi uses this fact to excellent effect on a new Navona CD on which he plays Brahms’ Op. 117 and Op. 118 – plus two contemporary pieces that are responses to and commentaries upon Brahms’ music. This could easily degenerate into an exchange of consonance for dissonance, a set of variations unrecognizable in their relationship to Brahms’ original material, or some other form of “tribute” that would be self-aggrandizing and would not elucidate anything. But that is not what happens here, thanks to the Continue reading BRAHMS AND BEYOND →

CLASSICAL

Brahmsiana
Music by and Inspired by Brahms
Steven Masi piano (Navona Records)

This unique release celebrates the highly introspective solo piano music of Johannes Brahms, as well as the ties that bind across the ages, with two new contemporary works inspired by the late romantic composer included as paired “companion pieces.” Continue reading The Winnipeg Free Press Review of Brahmsiana →

Brahmsiana: Music by and Inspired By Brahms
Steven Masi, piano
Navona Records 6260
Total Time:  78:26
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Steven Masi has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.  More recently he undertook a massive project of recording all of Beethoven’s sonatas which was well-received.  For this program, he has paired two modern works with their own roots connected to two of Brahms’ memorable piano collections (Op. 117, and 118).  The sense of looking back and reflecting on one’s place in history is something which thematically links all four works on this new release. Continue reading Cinemusical Review of Brahmsiana →

BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas Nos.1-32  ●  Steven Masi (pn)  ●  ALBANY TROY1661 (10 CDs: 674:38)

It’s been quite a season for Beethoven piano music enthusiasts. In the past several months, we’ve witnessed the completion of sonata cycles by Pavali Jumpannen and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, not to mention the epic conclusion of Ronald Brautigam’s survey of Beethoven’s complete solo piano works. Then, there was the fruition of a set with whose performer, Steven Masi, I had been absolutely unfamiliar but with which I’ve been having the pleasure of new acquaintance. What sets Masi’s set apart from the others is a sense of voyage, a kind of spontaneous approach to each sonata that charts a singular path of progression through a series of pieces that, all too often, can come off sounding glib, affected or some uneasy combination of both.

By way of transparency, let me offer a bit of reviewer context. Maybe it needn’t be said, but, as with most things of enduring quality, there is no best Beethoven sonata cycle. In the right hands, much interpretive freedom can lead to new insight and experience for the listener open to hearing it, from the smallest details of color and structure to the vast architectural principles Beethoven learned, expanded and ultimately destroyed and redesigned. For me, the journey has become paramount in importance, and if the performer can document a personal vision of that journey, as Masi does, so much the better. Continue reading Steven Masi Review of Beethoven Piano Sonatas by Marc Medwin →

Fanfare Magazine Review of Pianist Steven Masi

Jerry Dubins  March 14, 2014

“I don’t know what life Steven Masi was living when this materialization of Beethoven’s A-Major Sonata came into being because I wasn’t there for any of his previous existences, but the one he experienced for this performance must have been of transcendent grace and glory, for it’s a performance of both bliss and ecstasy.”

Masi strikes me as an artist that combines an innate musical instinct with an intellectual discipline in a perfect balance in which neither dominates, but in which both work together as a single, unified entity.

Fanfare Magazine Review of Pianist Steven Masi

Colin Clarke  March 14, 2014

Volume One of Masi’s Beethoven cycle gets off to an auspicious start, with a “Pastoral” (No. 15) that does indeed sound as if it was, to paraphrase Masi himself, singing itself into existence (it was in fact this very songlike quality that impelled me to ask about the pianist’s links to Schubert). The inclusion of the first movement repeat adds to the sense of breadth; the surprisingly emphatic accents act, perhaps, as a reminder that this is after all Beethoven we are dealing with. Masi’s awareness of texture is key to his reading: Listen to the tremendous left hand staccato in the second movement, for example, perfectly weighted and perfectly toned. The remaining two movements provide perfect contrasts: the rugged third against the hurdy-gurdy of the Finale. Continue reading Fanfare Magazine →

New York Concert Review of Pianist Steven Masi

February 18, 2014

Pianist Steven Masi gave a ferociously virtuosic performance of Justin Dello Joio’s  Two Concert Etudes: Momentum and Farewell.

Audiophile Audition Review of Pianist Steven Masi

Lee Passerella   September 06, 2013

“Right from the start in the lovely “Pastoral” Sonata, it’s evident that Masi has thought a great deal about matters such as dynamics and phrasing. The shaping and shading of the first movement are carried out with great care, and the slightly slow tempi allow the listener to savor the pianist’s studious ministrations. Continue reading Audiophile Audition →

Musicweb-International, United Kingdom Review of Pianist Steven Masi

Brian Reinhart     September 06, 2013 

“Steven Masi’s new cycle of the Beethoven sonatas starts with a bold choice of four great works that are very different from one another… Best is the famous Pathétique, strong of spine and lyrical too, with some of Masi’s idiosyncrasies – take the rhythms of the introduction, or the clear accompaniment in the adagio’s central passages – perking up my ears. I’m pretty jaded about this piece, have heard it too many times, but Masi brought back my interest and curiosity and gave me greater pleasure than any performance has in years. Continue reading Musicweb-International, United Kingdom →

The Telegraph, Calcutta, India Review of Pianist Steven Masi

“Schumann’s abject romanticism could not have deserved a better acolyte than Masi, as he approached the Fantasie Pieces, op. 12 with a bouquet of notes that radiated a sense of convivial chaos, comprising a litany of small melodic phrasings, mildly peremptory and sometimes coquettish, all in an ode to the sense of beckoning melancholy that weaves through most of Schumann’s oeuvre.”