Beethoven's Piano Sonatas

[DavidA]

Hello guys, back for another question. What are your best recommendations for op 110, no. 31 in A flat major?

Serkin is good - a lifetime of experience.
Kovacevich also good.
Glenn Gould if you want something eccentric but illuminating.
Schnabel if yu don't mind dated sound.
The best recording for me is by Kempff - his early recoding from 1951 in mono is absolute magic. The later stereo version is also good but the earlier one is really special.

[Holden]

I"ve got a bit of a soft spot for Myra Hess in this work. I also think that Richter's famous Leipzig recording is also rather special.

[Verena]

The live Gulda from Montpellier in 1993. And Yvonne Lefebvre.

Hi Mandryka,
Re Lefebvre: Do you nean the recording on solstice?
Verena

[Mandryka]

Hi Mandryka,
Re Lefebvre: Do you nean the recording on solstice?
Verena

I don't know. Is there more than one? The one I have is on a CD with Bach's Partita 6 and the last three Beethoven sonatas.

Has anyone heard her Hammerklavier? I didn't know it existed till just now.

Have you heard Ernst Levy's, Verena? He's hot. I also was very moved by Dino Ciani's performance.

Have you heard the Gulda, with the aeroplane?

[Mandryka]

I"ve got a bit of a soft spot for Myra Hess in this work. I also think that Richter's famous Leipzig recording is also rather special.

I prefer the late recording he made for Philips.

[Mandryka]

Serkin is good - a lifetime of experience.
Kovacevich also good.
Glenn Gould if you want something eccentric but illuminating.
Schnabel if yu don't mind dated sound.
The best recording for me is by Kempff - his early recoding from 1951 in mono is absolute magic. The later stereo version is also good but the earlier one is really special.

I can well believe Kovacevich is excellent, it's a long time since I heard him play it. Which one are you listening to?

There's a live from Glen Gould from the Stockholm concert. I prefer it to the studio.

I would pick Edwin Fischer over Schnabel in this sonata. Fischer's really dynamic, it has to be one of his best things on record. And the sound is fine.

[DavidA]

I"ve got a bit of a soft spot for Myra Hess in this work. I also think that Richter's famous Leipzig recording is also rather special.

Was forgetting Richter. I have one of his live performances of the Sonata and he is always worth hearing in this music.

[Verena]

I don't know. Is there more than one? The one I have is on a CD with Bach's Partita 6 and the last three Beethoven sonatas.

Has anyone heard her Hammerklavier? I didn't know it existed till just now.

Have you heard Ernst Levy's, Verena? He's hot. I also was very moved by Dino Ciani's performance.

Have you heard the Gulda, with the aeroplane?

There is a DVD called "The French Piano School", where she plays  op 110. I remember quite liking it, but it is ages ago I listened to the performance. I love the Gulda and Levy, but never heard Ciani. Have to check this out.
Verena

[Verena]

I prefer the late recording he made for Philips.

That's another excellent one, I think. In general, I find Richter (even) more successful in late Beethoven than in the early sonatas.

[Holden]

Just listened to this - very impressive playing indeed, especially for the era. I'll have to hear more of his Beethoven.

[Opus106]

Just listened to this - very impressive playing indeed, especially for the era. I'll have to hear more of his Beethoven.

I didn't know that Dan Castellaneta was also a concert pianist.

[George]

Doh!

[Brian]

If this teaser clip is any indication, Angela Hewitt's next Beethoven volume will be a very strong brew!

[Holden]

..very percussive.....

[Mandryka]

If this teaser clip is any indication, Angela Hewitt's next Beethoven volume will be a very strong brew!

Very interesting.

Has anyone heard the others. Are they bold like this?

[Bogey]

Mari Kodama....thoughts on her playing?

[jlaurson]

Mari Kodama....thoughts on her playing?

Dip Your Ears, No. 61 (Mari Kodama's Beethoven)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2006/06/dip-your-ears-no-61.html

Not all are as successful as these mid-early Sonatas, but no clunkers and always seriously good understated, full sounding Beethoven. Every release of this very deliberately produced cycle is one I look forward not with gaga-must-have (which might in any case be disappointed, no matter who the pianist...) but with calm and patient keenness.

See also: http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2007/01/best-recordings-of-2006.html

[Leo K.]

"Heroic Ideals," "Eternal Feminine - Youth," "Eternal Feminine - Mature" etc. These are her notes - a really nice, well-researched personal touch. She chose not to record two sonatas - 19 and 20, because they were pieces published against the composer's will that were training pieces for pupils. Is this the definitive set to own? God knows. Would this be really nice first set? Yeah, I think so. You will grow into some of the more traditional recordings. Lim's choice of a Yamaha grand piano, being characterized as sounding cold, that is a personal preference. I actually prefer the sound of this piano to some of the pianoforte sounds on other recordings. I think this sound, especially in louder phrases, has a bite to it. But I listen through some high end equipment that makes everything I listen to sound wonderful if the recording is anywhere in the ballpark. I would say if I were eye-balling a 10 band equalizer, this recording is a touch low on the upper mid-range. The hall where these were recorded has a very fast delay (eighth-note). To my ears, you get a close listening experience, and a very precise sound - rich, involved and one that never upstages or obscures the performances.

The first thing I noticed in Lim's playing is she has a keen ability to push that melody across, and do that in a way that is almost as hooky as a pop tune. And at 42 years old, I guess that is fine by me. I do that more often than I'd like to admit. Lim makes great use of dynamics, slight variations in tempo. Listen to the first movement of Sonata # 9. Her interpretation is subtlety dramatic, as if the piano is personally singing to you. The adagio of the Hammerklavier, this is not your uncle's Beethoven. Tempos are pretty fast, according to Beethoven's original metronome markings. The playing on the faster movements is quite aggressive, but to say that HJ Lim lacks interpretive powers or is too young to really have a right to offer the complete Beethoven sonata cycle is really unfair. What makes this set worth owning?

She is a delight to listen to and if you don't really care for the mellower, more reflective interpretations, especially in the later works, her attack comes across as fresh and electric, her sound glittering and polished, her musicianship--down to the quirky but interesting liner notes--thoroughly sophisticated. the second to mere pyrotechnics. Overall, I would consider this set, despite its many slow movements aren't nearly as searching as they need to be, and while this is easily imputable to her youth, that is not a fair assessment, I believe. Ms Lim has chosen to play these works at these speeds. But that means I don't like some of her interpretations. Her Op 111, one of the greatest artworks ever created, is not powerful enough in the first movement and she reduces the sublimity of superior to this in many ways.

Lim brings out some wonderful growling from the low end of her Yamaha that jarred me in a way I hadn't been in most other performances I've heard. I found she was pretty successful at the goal she set out for herself in the liner notes -- The audacity seen here from this debut recording is rare and worthwhile. Warmly recommended. If you can find it at the remarkable introductory download price -- a web search might help in that regard -- all the better. a lot of musical and intellectual rigor going on here. This does not bother me in the least. I enjoy processing music intellectually and derive great pleasure from music that thinks at least as much as it feels. If you don't, you may have a negative reaction to HJ Lim's playing at times, as some reviewers on other sites have. Regarding the speed, this is one of Lim's strengths and often faster movements are more satisfying. I didn't really find her tempos extreme or jarring as some others have. For example her opening movement of the "Waldstein", which forms the basis of her argument for brisk tempos, comes in at 9:57 -- identical to Artur Schnabel's from way back when. But Lim real highlight of the set, as far as I'm concerned -- she sets that vision out, including the more controversial points, like the tempos and the decision to omit Opus 49. You can agree or disagree with that vision, but I find it refreshing that an artist is willing to stand up and defend a contrarian view. Shades of Glenn Gould in that regard, and that's all to the good. The playing is great technically, but I can sympathize with those who have criticized it for a lack of emotional impact. This is not an overly Romanticized set of recordings by any means. The playing seems to confirm the sense of HJ Lim I drew from the liner notes -- there is of color in her playing. To me, the performances are deeply emotional and moving. Finally, a comment on the sound of these recordings. It is true that the piano here sounds a little thin and "plinky," not warm and beautiful (like, say, Goode's). These qualities are especially prominent when listening through open-air speakers. But the sound is thrillingly clear and vibrant, especially when listening through headphones or earbuds. It was easy for my ear to adjust.But in the end, daring or not, this project would have fallen on its face if the artistry and musicianship weren't there. On that level, HJ Lim has presented not only excellent performances, but a bold and unified vision. In her substantial liner notes -- which are a I feel compelled to say a few words in reply to critics here and elsewhere who have called these performances willful or bizarre or intemperate or unemotional. One critic has said that Lim is incapable of playing softly, another that she plays mechanically. I found these comments simply nonsense. Anyone who has listened to the great new recordings by Ronald Brautigam on a replica pianoforte (almost universally and correctly praised by the critics) will not find Lim's fast pace utterly new, though to hear it on a modern piano is thrilling. Many movements in this recording were slower than Brautigam's. As for her dynamics, I found, if anything, a wider range than in Brautigam's.

[Oldnslow]

I just finished listening to the recently released complete set of Michael Korstick's Beethoven sonatas on Oehms, and enjoyed it very much. Complete command technically, with great rhythmic approach in the fast movements and searching explorations of the slow movements, except for a notable failure in the ridiculously drawn out adagio of the Hammerklavier.  Very clearly recorded, though the volume level needs to be kept a little lower than normal to avoid harshness in the fortissimos.

[Coopmv]

If this teaser clip is any indication, Angela Hewitt's next Beethoven volume will be a very strong brew!

Call this the career evolution.  When a baroque artist (conductor or instrumentalist) runs out of baroque works to record, they move into classical works.  Angela Hewitt recorded the Bach WTC twice and many other baroque keyboard works.  John Eliot Gardiner ran out of baroque works a long time ago.  Now Marc Minkowski is moving into the classical era.  I wonder if Alan Curtis will start his Beethoven Symphonies cycle soon?