‘Frankenpost’, January 20th 2017
Ludwig van Beethoven’s 26th piano sonata is named „Les Adieux“ because of the editor giving this title to the music, instead of „Das Lebe Wohl“ as was the composer’s wish; the salute was dedicated to his archducal patron, who had to flee Vienna urgently. Also the first and last movement of the Schumann sonata seem to be in a rush. In his sonata „1.X.1905“ Leoš Janáček says farewell to a victim, killed in political riots between Czech and German people in Brno. And after finishing his seventh sonata Viktor Ullmann had to leave the Nazi concentration camp Terezin in 1944 and was murdered in the gas chamber in Auschwitz. At the age of only twenty-three Hanna Bachmann interprets a programme dedicated to the darker sides of life, playing it with noble earnestness and with delicate and beautiful sound. As a curiosity the Austrian adds the original final movement of the Schumann sonata to her ambitous thematic CD; this movement has the reputation of being unplayable – but Bachmann is able to do it.