Close, but incomplete Beethoven Sonatas

[Bogey]

Created in order to not muddy the "complete" thread:

I keep wanting to ask about those performers that came fairly close (let us say more than half) that recorded these works, and was wondering if some of our LvB Sonata experts (and I mean this sincerely), might post what portion of the cycle some their favorite performers completed.  For example, can anyone tell me how close Serkin came?  Did he complete the cycle?

[Que]

I have two favourite incomplete cycles.

One by Solomon Cutner, who suffered a stroke before his cycle was finished. He survived BTW and lived a long life - he died in 1988, 85 years old - but with paralisis in his right arm his career as a pianist was over. One of my favourite pianists ever.

He recorded: nos. 1, 3, 7, 8, , 13, 18, 21-23, 26-32. All availble on Testament.


Second is Paul Komen's HIP cycle on Globe. Though, I still hope he will finish it some day (soon!!! )...

He has recorded sofar: 8-11, 16-18, 21-27, 30-32. Ther is also a disc with the Diabelli variations and Bagatelles op. 126 (Ars Musici)

Q

[Todd]

Incomplete "cycles," some intended to be cycles, some never intended to be so, are somewhat maddening.  Why couldn't the artists have finished?  In some cases, of course, it was death – Gieseking, Gilels, Hungerford, they never got to.  Solomon had a stroke.   Unfortunate indeed.

As to incomplete sets, I've listed below the ones I know about.  I've excluded on-going cycles.  (I'm not an expert on the LvB sonata discography, of course, and I'd love to find someone who is.  I've yet to come across such a person online or in the flesh.)

To the specific question about Rudolf Serkin, I believe he recorded 17 sonatas, some multiple times, but pirate or other live recordings may take that total higher.

Solomon recorded 17.

Gieseking recorded 31 sonatas.  He never recorded Op 54.  Unfortunately, EMI hasn't reissued all of their recordings of Gieseking's sonatas, and the Tahra live set was out of print last I checked.  Both are needed to get to 31.  (Edit: He may have recorded the entire cycle for Saarbrucken Radio, but only 27 survive on tape.)

Wilhelm Kempff recorded 25 sonatas in the 20s and 30s.  Most are unavailable.

Gilels recorded 27 sonatas.

Hungerford recorded 22 sonatas I believe, with most (but not all!) available on Vanguard.  

Richter performed and recorded I don't know how many.  I believe Holden has worked on building as close to a complete cycle as possible.  I'm not sure if Richter made through more than 16.  Holden?

Louis Lortie was recording a complete cycle for Chandos, but I think the project was stopped shy of completion.  I believe he recorded 25.  

Kazune Shimizu reportedly recorded the entire cycle in the mid-90s for Sony, but I've only seen eight discs falling between four and six sonatas shy of the complete set if memory serves.  Alas, I didn't buy them when they were available, and now no Japanese outlet carries the recordings, let alone any outlets outside Japan.  (It would have been around $250 for an incomplete cycle, which even I wouldn't pay at the time.)

Of the recordings I've heard from the above, Gilels, Hungerford, and Serkin all tickle my fancy.  Gieseking (on Tahra) is a bit uneven, but some of the performances are superb.  His Op 106 is the fastest I've ever heard, if a bit uncontrolled.  The still relatively few Richter recordings I've heard (about a half-dozen) are generally exceptionally good.  From the early Kempff recordings I've heard only Op 13, and it's pretty good.

[Bulldog]

Incomplete "cycles," some intended to be cycles, some never intended to be so, are somewhat maddening.  Why couldn't the artists have finished?  In some cases, of course, it was death – Gieseking, Gilels, Hungerford, they never got to.  Solomon had a stroke.   Unfortunate indeed.

Aside from the death of the artist, I suppose there are some sonatas that a particular artist simply is not interested in recording.  That's a good thing.  I'm not keen on keyboardists recording an entire cycle just to be able to say they did it.

[Todd]

Aside from the death of the artist, I suppose there are some sonatas that a particular artist simply is not interested in recording.  That's a good thing.

Fair enough.  The reason I always like complete sets of LvB sonatas, as well as other composers' complete sets of piano works (Debussy, Ravel, Schubert, Mozart), is because I like to hear how an artist handles all of the works.  If the artist doesn't want to record for a given reason, that makes sense.  Of course, I've experienced recordigns where the artist wanted to record a specific work and the result indicated that may not have been the best idea.

[George]

Created in order to not muddy the "complete" thread:

I keep wanting to ask about those performers that came fairly close (let us say more than half) that recorded these works, and was wondering if some of our LvB Sonata experts (and I mean this sincerely), might post what portion of the cycle some their favorite performers completed.  For example, can anyone tell me how close Serkin came?  Did he complete the cycle?

He did not. He recorded 17 of the 32 

[Bogey]

Thanks for the effort so far.  Exactly what I was looking for.  Not only to fill in missing recordings, but rather just to know.

[George]

Wilhelm Kempff recorded 25 sonatas in the 20s and 30s.  Most are unavailable.

6 of them can be downloaded here.

[Holden]

Richter performed and recorded I don't know how many.  I believe Holden has worked on building as close to a complete cycle as possible.  I'm not sure if Richter made through more than 16.  Holden?

Richter recorded 22 of the 32 (just like Hungerford). Missing are #s 2, 5, 13, 14, 15, 16, 21, 24, 25 and 26.

For me, the incomplete cycles are frustrating and especially in the case of Solomon, Gilels and Hungerford. Each of them could have come close to being that definitive cycle of the works and all were cut down in their prime. Serkin deliberately (like Richter) chose only to record those sonatas he felt he could do justice to. I'd really like to hear his early 50s recordings of these having sampled a superb Waldstein from that era.

The two pianists I would like to see complete a cycle are Moravec (unlikely at his age) and Grigori Sokolov whose Beethoven is really growing on me. He's still young enough to do it and each year he adds one or two more two his repertoire.

[dirkronk]

For me, the incomplete cycles are frustrating and especially in the case of Solomon, Gilels and Hungerford. Each of them could have come close to being that definitive cycle of the works and all were cut down in their prime.

Agree completely about Solomon and Hungerford, as you and I have discussed in the past. Gilels is a bit more problematic, since IMO the best versions of the Beethoven he did are live and not always his DGG studio series. But yes, I'd love to have heard the full set by all these artists.

Serkin deliberately (like Richter) chose only to record those sonatas he felt he could do justice to.

Well, frankly, THESE are the guys who frustrate me. Especially Richter.

The two pianists I would like to see complete a cycle are Moravec (unlikely at his age) and Grigori Sokolov whose Beethoven is really growing on me. He's still young enough to do it and each year he adds one or two more two his repertoire.

Complete accord once more. In fact, with regard to Moravec, I'm sad that he didn't record about five or six times the repertoire that he did. And let's not get too complacent about Sokolov, either. He's as old as I am...and sometimes that seems pretty darn old.


Dirk

[RebLem]

Bruce Hungerford and Vanguard intended for him to record the complete cycle, but he was killed in a tragic auto accident by a drunk driver on 26 January 1977 before he completed the cycle.  He was 54 years old.  The performances he did record, however, all of which are currently available, are top notch and highly recommended.

[jlaurson]

Incomplete cycles also include "Kempff 0", the one he recorded on shellac for Polydor. WWII cut that one short with op.2/3; op.22; op.27/1; op.28; op.31 #2; and op.101 missing.

Warning to pianists: don't record the Beethoven sonatas for EMI. As detailed above, they worked with Solomon (Cutner), and he had a stroke.
Then they tried it with Gieseking (extant but for tapes of 4, 5, 7, 20, 22 which are lost and no.29 which he never recorded) and then he died.
I'm just glad that Kovacevic survived.

Legge--still for Columbia--also worked on a cycle with Arrau, but after 11 sonatas that project was dropped in 1960. (At least not due to the death of the artist.)

Technically incomplete, but patched with earlier recordings, are Backhaus' second, stereo, set... and Arrau's second, digital, set. !4 & 29 are missing from the latter, just 29 from the former.

Gould, Gilels have been mentioned... although Gould probably never wanted to record all sonatas, anyway... and neither did Serkin. (One sonata in particular he would not touch because he could not match Beethoven's indicated fingering (no one can, because the keys on a modern keyboard are wider than on the Broadwoods and Erards of LvB's time).

Pollini will presumably have his cycle finished... unless he, too, wants to join the league of greats who have been cut short just a few sonatas before the 'goal'. He'd be in good company, at least.

[George]

... and neither did Serkin. (One sonata in particular he would not touch because he could not match Beethoven's indicated fingering (no one can, because the keys on a modern keyboard are wider than on the Broadwoods and Erards of LvB's time).

Which sonata is that?

[prémont]

Incomplete cycles also include "Kempff 0", the one he recorded on shellac for Polydor. WWII cut that one short with . .. op.27/1; ....missing.

Strange, as far as I own a pre-war recording by Kempff of the op. 27/1.
Always supposed it was part of the Polydor set.
Maybe I have to dig it out to find out.

[jlaurson]

Strange, as far as I own a pre-war recording by Kempff of the op. 27/1.
Always supposed it was part of the Polydor set.
Maybe I have to dig it out to find out.

I'm not betting on the correctness of my information, either. Kempff recorded so much Beethoven--individual sonatas and individual movements over and and over again--that it's very hard to keep it all in order. Frank Forman's discography is priceless, but hard to decipher.

This is his entry for op.27/1, one of the lesser recorded among Kempff's output (there are 7 recordings of op.27/2, for example):

Sonata 13 in Eb, Op. 27, No. 1.
a. 67858/9, 69077/8 (automatic coupling) [1621 GS9,
  1622 1/2 GS9, ?, ?]
b. 1951/2. #18076; #D.DL 9584
c. $138 939

[prémont]

Sonata 13 in Eb, Op. 27, No. 1.
a. 67858/9, 69077/8 (automatic coupling) [1621 GS9,
 1622 1/2 GS9, ?, ?]
b. 1951/2. #18076; #D.DL 9584
c. $138 939

A list of that kind, which contains so few concrete informations is IMO rather worthless than priceless.

As far as I can see "a." is a 78 RPM release, but it may (as no recording dates are given) as well be the pre-war recording I own in CD transfer as part of the Mono integral from 1952 which probably were released in 78 RPM format too.

"b." ought to be part of the Mono integral.

"c." must then be part of the Stereo integral.

[jlaurson]

A list of that kind, which contains so few concrete informations is IMO rather worthless than priceless.

As far as I can see "a." is a 78 RPM release, but it may (as no recording dates are given) as well be the pre-war recording I own in CD transfer as part of the Mono integral from 1952 which probably were released in 78 RPM format too.

"b." ought to be part of the Mono integral.

"c." must then be part of the Stereo integral.

"Worthless" is of course harsh nonsense. Because of my cutting and pasting you are not privy to some of the information that would explain... something for which the author certainly is not to blame.

But yes, the discography, though complete, is not as useful as it could be. (Then again, often dates are simply not known. This is not a deficiency of Mr. Forman's (who has every recording of Kempff's, except a handful), but of the information simply not being available.

[jlaurson]

Not mentioned yet, as far as I've read, has been the projected cycle that Westminster got started in 1950 with Kurt Appelbaum who was then replaced with the very young Badura Skoda before the project was abandoned altogether.

[Mandryka]

A question for the experts: what do we know about Fiorentino and recorded Beethoven sonatas.

I think Concert Artists published a complete cycle by him, but that has shown to be partly a fake, I think. But was he engaged in recording a complete cycle and just never finished it?

[George]

I think Concert Artists published a complete cycle by him, but that has shown to be partly a fake, I think. But was he engaged in recording a complete cycle and just never finished it?

It's the first that I have read about either of these things. That's disturbing to hear that Concert Artists did that.