“Ms. Kodama brings a canny, graceful style to these early--though iconoclastic--works of Beethoven, a graded, assiduous sense of rhythm and tempered dynamics”.
Gary Lemco
Audiophile Audition
“Young Japanese pianist Mari Kodama continues her recordings of Beethoven’s piano sonatas with this issue of the three of Op. 2 .. Already she has recorded three SACDs for Pentatone containing nine other sonatas. Excellent performances all, and very well recorded with larger than life surround sound”.
Robert Benson
Classicalcdreview.com
The first things that struck me on first playing was the sonic quality and remarkable playing. This is 25 year old Beethoven sounding like any of the later numbers
Raffels
SA-CD.net
“The beauty of this piano-playing sneaks up on you….One telling example of her over-arching view is the consistency of her sforzandos; they never come crashing down, as one is used to hearing in Beethoven, but rather land with all the notes evenly revealed and intact, still loud and even biting, but not clangy…The very idea that someone can still play this music and introduce a new perspective is remarkable enough.”
Peter Burwasser
Fanfare