#227 The Smell of Evening Beach

The rush is gone. It's just lovers, and sunset, and small waves, and wind, cold a little bit. The life is pulsing, irregularly. And when the melody in the ninth minute unwinds, it's all coming into blossom.

Steinbacher and Kulek can bring pretty casual sound, it's like an improvisation, random ideas, here and now.

Composer: Johannes Brahms
Work: Sonata for piano and violin No 1, I. Vivace ma non troppo
Recording: Arabella Steinbacher, Robert Kulek

#206 The Smell of Disease

A very peaceful motif starts to spread like cancer. The dark tones at 1'49'' are so ill and omnious. Decorum of the beginning is returning: for the last times, with these dark tones, in an unlikely symbiosis.

Kovacevich is soft and thoughtful. Not so sparkling, not ornamental, not playful.

Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Work: Piano Sonata No 22, I. In tempo di menuetto
Recording: Stephen Kovacevich

#143 The Smell of Damping

Not the moon on the cloudy sky but a damping haze is here. Low-key melancholy of tones, still the same, a mood caught in a split of second and expanded to four minutes. No tears, just catatonia.

This is not a typical Moonlight sonata, and maybe it's a recording you would not like. Gould goes for faster tempo and left hand emphasis. He deliberately keeps the magic down–no place for romantism.

Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Work: Piano Sonata No 14, I. Adagio sostenuto
Recording: Glenn Gloud

#130 The Smell of Melancholy

What a magical beginning! Soft piano and microscopic violin sounds, trying to grow, to be bigger. But there's no joy in being bigger. In full blossom, the mood is pushing again and again the same melancholy button.

Argerich and Kremer are masters. You can hardly believe it's just music. There has to be more: true magic.

Composer: Robert Schumann
Work: Violin Sonata No 2, III. Leise, einfach
Recording: Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer

#117 The Smell of Figure Skating

One leg, the other. Slow, elegant movements. Turn around, skate backward. Jump! Another! And two more! This piece of music is so instructional, you can rewrite every bar to skating terminology: spin here, toe jump there, speed up, extend arms.

Lewis is kind of strict, lathe-like. Merely dancing, more constructing. Maybe geometry is the word.

Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Work: Piano Sonata No 10, III. Scherzo: Allegro assai
Recording: Paul Lewis

#111 The Smell of Romantic Love

The two voices, piano and violin, are so bedazzled here, so in love. They are walking together, holding hands, complementing sentences. Opiate infatuation of the first weeks.

The sound is soft and rounded. No thorns, even the rise at 5'14'' is so amorous. At the end, the music tells us: go, leave the lovers alone.

Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Work: Violin Sonata No 5, II. Adagio molto espressivo
Recording: Oleg Kagaan, Sviatoslav Richter

#63 The Smell of Persistence

The smell here is really importune. Pa-pa-pa-pam! Pa-pa-pa-pa-pam! It's coming from everywhere, it's attacking from all directions. Tirelessly, persistently, steadily.

At all, the movement sounds comprehensive and exhausting. If I were Schubert, I'd drop after the first movement. This sonata does not need two movements.

Composer: Franz Schubert
Work: Piano Sonata in C Major, D. 840, I. Moderato
Recording: Imogen Cooper

#60 The Smell of ADD

It's a jagged piece of music for two violins. Imagine these two violins as one voice, one person, fragmentary, absent-minded. Obsessively exploring what's happening around, not able to focus, not willing to pay attention.

There's no absolution. The music is here to be accepted. Will you be able to make sense of it, will you be able to follow both lines?

Composer: Sergei Prokofiev
Work: Sonata for two violins, II. Allegro
Recording: Veronika Jarůšková, Eva Karová

#58 The Smell of Purity

Subtle, high-hearted, noble tone. Happy melody. I smell spring coming, gentle, green, embracive.

There's just one hard tone there (1'38''). It's a stamp of a child. Do you feel how indignant the child is? "Do it one more time, better, I want it!" And we do it–for spring.

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Work: Sonata for Piano No 15, K. 545
Recording: Sviatoslav Richter

#47 The Smell of Fuss

Here's music fussing around, always on its way, going somewhere. Hard to anticipate, hard to follow.

It's always fascinating when pauses are able to play music. In this sonata, and in Blechacz's interpretation, pauses are very important, and–now this is so weird–wonderfully played.

Composer: Joseph Haydn
Work: Piano Sonata in E flat major, Hob. XVI:52
Recording: Rafał Blechacz

#42 The Smell of Madness

The beginning is like from a different, better universe. Then, a theme so subtle and fast, it disappears into a plain scenery (0'56'') where everything will be built again. The music pushes and pushes, tension is so high (2'16'') and then it all breaks (4'00''). We can try to fix it but the final reassuring chords are like shutting white doors. Do you want to be in or out?

Don't take me wrong but my music world is not the world of Chopin, in the same sense as Karajan's Beethoven is not my Beethoven. This piano sonata is an exception. Maybe this is a spot I can touch Chopin. Maybe it's because of young Pogorelich, after all.

Composer: Frédéric Chopin
Work: Piano Sonata No 2, I. Grave – Doppio movimento
Recording: Ivo Pogorelich

#27 The Smell of Longing

First smell is the smell of Tom and Jerry. One goes after the other–pure fun, imitation, frivolity. But then... these are deep undertows. Ambition to be perfect. A younger sibling trying to match, to face up.

The performance is thrilling and intrusive. No wrong sounds, everything in place. It's delivering something complete. Nothing can or should be added.

Composer: Robert Schumann
Work: Sonata No 1 for piano and violin, III. Lebhaft
Recording: Andreas Staier, Daniel Sepec

#20 The Smell of Electricity

It's a big fight between reserve and emotion. Calm but under pressure. Will it hold?

Electricity is the result of the fight. Appassionata is a tension, a thrill in piano music.

Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Work: Piano Sonata No 23, "Appassionata", II. Andante con moto
Recording: Lang Lang

#7 The Smell of Leaving

It's really a subtle smell. The main phrase is sad and blaming. We have no idea what happened, it's like post mortem lamentation in sarabande rhythm.

Listen to its very end: Do you hear the echo of the wail? These bloodless high tones? That's the only answer the wail gets, its own broken echo. After that–there's nothing. Two last bars, played pizzicato and piano, are just closing the door forever. The smell is in the air.

Composer: Eugène Ysaÿe
Work: Sonata for solo violin No. 4, II. Sarabande
Recording: Maxim Vengerov