Recordings

Though these four 20th century composers are separated by country, style, temperament and you-name-it, Ohlsson assembles a coherent, unified program from their solo piano catalogs. He takes a relatively soft-focused view of the dramatic wartime Prokofiev sonata, and the crystalline Webern radiates a gentler glow in his hands than in those of, say, Maurizio Pollini or Glenn Gould. Yet in Bartok’s mostly vehement Three Studies--a relatively rare item--Ohlsson generates all the forward drive one would want. The bold dissonances and dead-earnest intensity of Barber’s Piano Sonata run directly against his latter-day image as a neo-Romantic--which makes it a good companion for the other works on the album. Indeed, the Barber inspires the most outgoing, charged-up performance on the disc, a sturdy challenger to the recording by the pianist who gave the sonata its first performances, a fellow named Horowitz.