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My CD contains Girod's rendition of Weber's Piano Sonatas 2-4. On the basis of her performance of these three works, I am confident that her version of Weber's First Sonata will also be as exciting as the others, so, a warm welcome to the entire set.
I have not heard Alfred Brendel's account of Weber's Second Sonata (apparently the best on record), but Girod's is among the very best I have heard, better than Garrick Ohlsson's and better-recorded than Alfred Cortot's magical performance. This sonata combines some of Weber's best explorations of the sonorities of the piano with the bravura writing with which his piano music is normally associated, and Girod is equally good at combining the poetic and virtuoso elements. Her fingers are nimbler and more accurate than Ohlsson's in the so-called Menuetto third movement (it is really a scherzo).
The third sonata has Ohlsson on top form - I think that he his at his best in this sonata, and convinces me that this is the best of the four - but Girod also offers a good performance. (The magnificent ending of the slow movement could have sounded better, but this may be a problem with the recording than with the pianist's interpretation). However, Girod's performance of Weber's Fourth Sonata is, once again, exceptionally good (definitely preferable to the dry sound of the Leon Fleischer recording), and the listener has a lot to enjoy from these performances!
