HieYon Choi’s Beethoven Complete I

By Yong-Won Sung

Monthly Review KR, April 2025

Waldstein Sonata – Her performance brims with tension and resilient elasticity. The clear articulation and rhythmic precision, reminiscent of Baroque style, propel the rapid passages forward. It conveys an intellectual aura — academic in nature yet grounded in fidelity to the essence of the work. Her phrasing is expansive. Through HieYon Choi, the stern and rigorous language of Beethoven unfolds with clarity. Her playing carries the breath of the great classical tradition embodied by Wilhelm Kempff and Wilhelm Backhaus.

Sonata No. 30 – In the transition from the first to the second movement, the sustained major triad following the quarter rest is marked ‘p’ in the score, yet Choi renders it nearly ‘pppppp’, to the point of inaudibility. The second movement, in 6/8 or 9/16 (or even 12/32), as in Sonata No. 32, shows rhythmic fluctuations — sometimes fast, sometimes slow, occasionally sudden, or more hesitant than before. The weight balance between the preceding quarter note and the following eighth note is not always differentiated. Positively speaking, she perceives rhythm not as fragmented but as an organic whole, viewing the movement on a large scale; conversely, one might say that fine details are overlooked in favor of the broader architecture. The theme of the third-movement variations unfolds naturally and serenely — much like the variation theme of Sonata No. 32 or the transcendent Aria from her live Goldberg Variations. Before the theme’s return in the final variation, the soaring ascent becomes the cry of Beethoven the free spirit.

Sonata No. 31 – The opening is mysterious. Listen attentively to the left-hand accompaniment in the first movement — simple yet perfectly suited to its songlike nature. When the theme modulates to B minor in the development, it grows in intensity, amplifying the will to overcome sorrow. The recurring “Themakopf” and the left-hand counter-melody unfold calmly and unhurriedly, every note clearly voiced and thus stable. Throughout the first movement, the contrast in tone color and register between themes is distinct, and the 32nd-note figures, brightened by pedal, are cleanly articulated without haste. In the recitative, lament, aria, and fugue of the third movement, particularly at the fugue’s return (m. 137), one again hears Beethoven’s cry of freedom — as in the coda of Sonata No. 30.

Sonata No. 32 – After the introduction, when the first Allegro theme’s low-octave unison moves from C to E-flat, one might wish for a bit more spatial breadth. The left-hand marcato — Choi’s hallmark — would have been perfect if treated as in mm. 58–60. If the first movement represents constraint, the second is liberation: an improvisatory unfolding, as if conversing with Beethoven’s spirit, floating freely in a play of light and shadow. From the theme of the second movement, written in 9/16, she resists confinement to regularity. When the meter shifts to 12/32 and doubles in speed, particularly around mm. 53–55, the music achieves a jazz-like transcendence of improvisation. Within this irregular regularity and the resurgence of sforzando accents lies a renewed cosmic energy — a revelation and vision of Beethoven’s late-period enlightenment.