Recordings That You Are Considering

[Jo498]

That's why I put it in scare quotes. Without a doubt, Pollini is one of the major living pianists. However, I do not feel that I have to listen to or own all recordings of all major pianists (it is simply not feasible and I also have other interests). I cannot and do not want to buy a Beethoven sonata set every year (not even every other year), so recording of the year is not enough...

[Brian]

I do not feel that I have to listen to or own all recordings of all major pianists (it is simply not feasible

Not true for some GMGers!

[amw]

I listened to the complete Pollini cycle and don't remember any of the sonatas before Op. 79, which was good (but loud). Then the ones until Op. 101 returned to unmemorability. That's just me, though.

[kishnevi]

I find Todd's reports to be a good barometer ( although not always ending up in agreement with him...Annie Fischer I found to be good in all the sonatas, but somehow not great in the sum, for instance).  Which is why my LvB prospectus is aimed at Daniel Ben-Pienaar.

[Jo498]

For whatever reason I find only very little by Todd about the Pollini recordings, except that he recommends getting singles because there are some additional live recordings apparently not included in the whole set. Maybe I am not smart enough for smart searching.
Anyway, of Todd's favorites I have Gulda, Schnabel, Gilels, Lucchesini, Serkin, many of Richter's and some of Annie Fischer's; many of them for years, long before I read this forum. (As I mentioned in another thread, I am not as fond of the half dozen or so sonatas I have heard with Backhaus and Kempff.) I also have a bunch of Kovacevich's whose newer EMI recordings are often similar to newer Pollini in their sometimes aggressive forwardness. (Pollinis older late sonatas are somewhat cool but not very aggressive and have an "ethereal", luminous quality I do not seem to hear in what I have heard of his more recent Beethoven.)

[amw]

Which is why my LvB prospectus is aimed at Daniel Ben-Pienaar.

I remember not being so impressed with DBP. I listened to Op. 101 and 106 just now. 101 was a bit forgettable tbh, despite his very interventionist approach; 106 more interesting—if you don't mind slow Hammerklaviers that is—as he pretty much gets the edgy, harsh sound required for the first two movements (and fugue) but also has no problem switching it off at a moment's notice for the adagio (which, however, is quite self-indulgent, and he's not very good at the long line, I don't think). Overall I would guess micro self-indulgent but macro Beethovenian if that makes sense.

One thing I do like is that DBP is not perfect. I can tell where he's having difficulties. The thing is those are mostly the same places I have difficulties when I try to play Beethoven sonatas so it leads to a feeling of kinship. (I have similar feelings towards PBS/Astrée.) Sometimes of course one wants technical wizardry well out of the reach of most pianists (I think the pianist I'd turn to for that would be Stewart Goodyear) but at other times that can be alienating and one prefers the sense of a human striving towards the superhuman.

[jlaurson]

I think Pollini is hyped in the same way Mozart is overrated. Yes, it's true. But it's true for a reason... namely that they are both pretty darn good in their way. Not *that* much better than others as their most ardent fans or hearsay will make them out to be, but very very good. I find Pollini, apart from the towering late sonatas, especially fine in the shorter, less-well known non-early sonatas...
The cycles I'll tackle next, partly out of interest partly out of obligation, are Badura-Skoda (Gramola), which has the best liner notes of any set... and that guy on Chandos who I think got to finish his cycle only because of contractual obligations on the part of Chandos before setting upon a new cycle with Bavouzet... Can't think of the name right now.

[Karl Henning]

I think Pollini is hyped in the same way Mozart is overrated. Yes, it's true. But it's true for a reason... namely that they are both pretty darn good in their way. Not *that* much better than others as their most ardent fans or hearsay will make them out to be, but very very good.

Perfectly fair, I think.

[The new erato]

I think Pollini is hyped in the same way Mozart is overrated. Yes, it's true. But it's true for a reason... namely that they are both pretty darn good in their way. Not *that* much better than others as their most ardent fans or hearsay will make them out to be, but very very good. I find Pollini, apart from the towering late sonatas, especially fine in the shorter, less-well known non-early sonatas...
The cycles I'll tackle next, partly out of interest partly out of obligation, are Badura-Skoda (Gramola), which has the best liner notes of any set... and that guy on Chandos who I think got to finish his cycle only because of contractual obligations on the part of Chandos before setting upon a new cycle with Bavouzet... Can't think of the name right now.

Lortie?

[Jo498]

As I tried to explain, the point for me is not whether Pollini is good or bad. Of course he is pretty good. If someone wants to listen to or own 30 or 50 or more cycles of Beethoven sonatas, his is certainly mandatory.
But for me only if it is not the record of the year but of the decade or so.

Maybe we should pick one Beethoven sonata cycle for every decade from the 1930s (not sure if there is one from the 1940s and of course some are stretched over more than a decade or three)

1930s Schnabel
1940s
1950s Kempff and Backhaus
1960s Gulda and Arrau
1970s Brendel?
1980s Gilels (despite begun in the 1970s and not quite complete).
1990s
2000s
2010s

Of course, Pollini stretches over more than 30 years. If it had come out in the 1990s it might have been the one of that decade. Is it the Beethoven cycle for our decade? Or too late...?

So if I am allowed 9 cycles since the 1930s should I include Pollini?

[Sadko]

I deleted my previous post: Arrau is there! :-)

[Jo498]

I "cheated" but because of ignorance because I could not think of cycles commonly considered "essential" for the 1940s and was unsure about the 1990s until today. So because I named two for the 60s one of the later decades would have to be left blank (or Arrau could be taken for the 1970s instead of Brendel - I am not even sure about the exact recording dates).

[Sadko]

I "cheated" but because of ignorance because I could not think of cycles commonly considered "essential" for the 1940s and was unsure about the 1990s until today. So because I named two for the 60s one of the later decades would have to be left blank (or Arrau could be taken for the 1970s instead of Brendel - I am not even sure about the exact recording dates).

I have the Arrau cycle, but the box with the data is quite at the bottom of a pile ... :-)

I love Brendel's Schubert, but I never liked his Beethoven.

[Sadko]

Solomon ist also quite remarkable. Not complete, if I remember correctly, but standing out of the "Beethoven mass" :-)

[jlaurson]

I "cheated" but because of ignorance because I could not think of cycles commonly considered "essential" for the 1940s and was unsure about the 1990s until today. So because I named two for the 60s one of the later decades would have to be left blank (or Arrau could be taken for the 1970s instead of Brendel - I am not even sure about the exact recording dates).

You will find that that's where my Survey comes in handy.


The (Great) Incomplete Cycles
Part 1: 1935 - 1969
Part 2: 1967 - 1974
Part 3: 1977 - 1989
Part 4: 1990 - 1996
Part 5: 1996 - 1999
Part 6: 2000 - 2005
Part 7: 2006 - 2009
Part 8: 2010 - 2013
Part 9: 2014 - onward


Admittedly, they increase exponentially, so it's difficult to divide it into neat decades.

Lortie?

Precisely!

Agree about Pollini being not a 2010s cycle... he's got the feel of belonging more among the pianists-of-stature cycles a la Brendel III, Gilels*, Arrau II et al... rather than HJ Lim and various self-published efforts.

[Que]

Solomon ist also quite remarkable. Not complete, if I remember correctly, but standing out of the "Beethoven mass" :-)

I very much like Solomon. It is weird that in this age of megasets a boxset of his Beethoven  recordings is still absent.. ..

Q

[kishnevi]

As I tried to explain, the point for me is not whether Pollini is good or bad. Of course he is pretty good. If someone wants to listen to or own 30 or 50 or more cycles of Beethoven sonatas, his is certainly mandatory.
But for me only if it is not the record of the year but of the decade or so.

Maybe we should pick one Beethoven sonata cycle for every decade from the 1930s (not sure if there is one from the 1940s and of course some are stretched over more than a decade or three)

1930s Schnabel
1940s
1950s Kempff and Backhaus
1960s Gulda and Arrau
1970s Brendel?
1980s Gilels (despite begun in the 1970s and not quite complete).
1990s
2000s
2010s

Of course, Pollini stretches over more than 30 years. If it had come out in the 1990s it might have been the one of that decade. Is it the Beethoven cycle for our decade? Or too late...?

So if I am allowed 9 cycles since the 1930s should I include Pollini?

For the current decade,  I would suggest FF Guy.

[Todd]

I think Pollini is hyped in the same way Mozart is overrated. Yes, it's true.

I'd say his 70s recordings are not overrated.   

Maybe we should pick one Beethoven sonata cycle for every decade from the 1930s

Sounds like fun.  Going by decade of completion:

30s - Schnabel
40s - N/A
50s - Kempff
60s - Gulda (Amadeo)
70s - Fischer (even knowing about the editing)
80s - Gilels (if incomplete); Badura-Skoda (Astree/JVC / if complete)
90s - Sherman
00s - Lucchesini
10s - Pienaar (so far)

[Sadko]

> Maybe we should pick one Beethoven sonata cycle for every decade from the 1930s

As I wrote in the listening thread: Yves Nat's 50's cycle is also very interesting, but the sound is not good.

[jlaurson]

Sounds like fun.  Going by decade of completion:

30s - Schnabel (by default)
40s - Gieseking/Saarbruecken (by default, if incomplete)
50s - Kempff (mono)*
60s - Backhaus (stereo)*
70s - Brendel II or Badura-Skoda I (by personal default, since I only have those and Kuerti from the 70s... perhaps it would be Fischer, even though I've not fully bought into the little I've heard)
80s - Ashkenazy (if complete), Gilels (if incomplete)
90s - Goode
00s - Brautigam (Kovacevic was maybe the defining one that decade; the last "event" until Pollini's belated finish.)
10s - Pollini (so far)

* this reflects my preference of Backhaus stereo over mono (by a non-existent margin, really) and Kempff mono over stereo (by a notable margin). In a way Backhaus was more THE pianist of the 50s and Kempff of the 60s, though...? Feels like that, anyway.