Beethoven's Piano Sonatas

[Pohjolas Daughter]

This:

I see it listed on Amazon Music and also, for free, here on youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa1rC97wRkZhoo787_JT_tlaH-ESHsUxu

I don't know about physical copies for sale; I did see that it had recently sold on Discogs though.

PD

[kapsweiss2021]

I need some help from Todd or anyone. I thought that Robert Silverman had two complete cycles. One in Orpheum Masters and other in Audio High, but I have seen this in his Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/robertsilvermuse/p/C80FzaXSdHZ/

https://www.instagram.com/p/C41W1vWvBc1/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

He is uploading a live cycle in various locations ( Glenn Gould Theatre, Studio, etc) from 1998-99 to 2010. You can buy It from bandcamp or listen for free.

Is it another new cycle from him? ¿The third one or the same as Orpheum/Audiohigh?

[Todd]

Is it another new cycle from him? ¿The third one or the same as Orpheum/Audiohigh?

It looks like he is uploading select recordings that may or may not comprise all of the sonatas over time.  It looks like they are one-offs, like his Rouvain recording of the last three sonatas played on Steinway #500,000.  (That is probably his best LvB recording.)  The Orpheum cycle was performed/played back from a special Bösendorfer.  He also separately released conventional recordings of Opp 26, 27/2, and 57 on the same label.  I think Orpheum Masters, or its successor, owns the copyright, so it is unlikely he is rereleasing those, but maybe.  The later AudioHigh cycle was never issued in full and I suspect only some of the unreleased recordings will be issued, like 31/3 from the IG link. 

[kapsweiss2021]

It looks like he is uploading select recordings that may or may not comprise all of the sonatas over time.  It looks like they are one-offs, like his Rouvain recording of the last three sonatas played on Steinway #500,000.  (That is probably his best LvB recording.)  The Orpheum cycle was performed/played back from a special Bösendorfer.  He also separately released conventional recordings of Opp 26, 27/2, and 57 on the same label.  I think Orpheum Masters, or its successor, owns the copyright, so it is unlikely he is rereleasing those, but maybe.  The later AudioHigh cycle was never issued in full and I suspect only some of the unreleased recordings will be issued, like 31/3 from the IG link. 

Thanks for the information. Some sonatas are published as "Never Before Released" or live concerts. For example, Op.31/1, Appassionata and Waldstein end with applause....

Here are  30  sonatas (They are missing Hammerklavier and nº 7):

https://robertsilverman1.bandcamp.com/

On sonata nº 7, Robert Silverman says: "One ground-rule the producers of this 2010 set and I agreed upon was that if any sonatas were not noticeably superior to what I had previously recorded, they would not be included. Regretfully, I do not have in my archives a recording of Op. 10/3 that I am prepared to offer to the public. Microphones have been known to spook me, and they did so time and time again with this piece, especially when I was happy with the performance. Sorry about that."

[Mandryka]

A comment from Silverman's recording of Brahms op 5 on bandcamp

I have increasingly learned, contrary to what I have believed most of my life, my live solo performances get a lot closer to my personal sonic images of a given piece, often with more spontaneity, than my "official" recordings of the same music, which now seem to demonstrate how I think a piece ought to go, and will stand up to repeated hearings

I'm listening now to his Brahms op 116 - which the notes suggest he's proud of, quite rightly judging from the second fantasy.

[Florestan]

A comment from Silverman's recording of Brahms op 5 on bandcamp

I have increasingly learned, contrary to what I have believed most of my life, my live solo performances get a lot closer to my personal sonic images of a given piece, often with more spontaneity, than my "official" recordings of the same music, which now seem to demonstrate how I think a piece ought to go, and will stand up to repeated hearings

My, my, my... a live performance is more spontaneous than a studio recording! Who'd have thought?

[Mandryka]

Possibly of interest to people who like Beethoven -- Natan Brand op 110 in his inimitable style

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UsCwtVbN5I

[hopefullytrusting]

A long time ago, I listened to pretty much every version of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 30, Op. 109 (it is easily my favorite), but recently I came across one that I missed, and it has skyrocketed to the top of my list - it is eye-opening from the get, the rolling of the notes, I can feel it in my fingers!

Backhaus. Firenze. 1969.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1jROtkvOwDM

[Mandryka]

A long time ago, I listened to pretty much every version of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 30, Op. 109 (it is easily my favorite), but recently I came across one that I missed, and it has skyrocketed to the top of my list - it is eye-opening from the get, the rolling of the notes, I can feel it in my fingers!

Backhaus. Firenze. 1969.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1jROtkvOwDM

Extraordinary, good find. He makes me think of Zoltan Kocsis and Edwin Fischer - because of the drive forward, energy.

[Florestan]

Extraordinary, good find. He makes me think of Zoltan Kocsis and Edwin Fischer

Isn't he supposed to make you think of Beethoven? 

[(poco) Sforzando]

Isn't he supposed to make you think of Beethoven? 

Who's that?

[prémont]

Isn't he supposed to make you think of Beethoven? 

Never heard him play.

[Florestan]

Who's that?

As a fictitious Oxford don says in an episode of the excellent BBC series Lewis (quoted from memory): I hate Byron, Keats and all the other Romantic poets, the bloody effing Shelley most of all: they were all drunkards, womanizers and drug addicts who did not understand a iota of their own writings. It's just my well remunerated and prestigious job to lecture on them. 

[Florestan]

Never heard him play.

All the better for you, because if you did, chances are you'd have been hugely disappointed... 

[Madiel]

All the better for you, because if you did, chances are you'd have been hugely disappointed... 

I'd be too scared to be disappointed.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Never heard him play.

In his later years, I doubt he did either.

[(poco) Sforzando]

As a fictitious Oxford don says in an episode of the excellent BBC series Lewis (quoted from memory): I hate Byron, Keats and all the other Romantic poets, the bloody effing Shelley most of all: they were all drunkards, womanizers and drug addicts who did not understand a iota of their own writings. It's just my well remunerated and prestigious job to lecture on them. 

Of that group, Coleridge was the greatest drug addict.

[Florestan]

Of that group, Coleridge was the greatest drug addict.

Many great artists were drug addicts, drunkards and womanizers --- but not every drunkard in every pub is a great artist.

[Mandryka]

Of that group, Coleridge was the greatest drug addict.

Do we count Thomas de Quincey as part of that group? He wrote prose poems.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Do we count Thomas de Quincey as part of that group? He wrote prose poems.

You're right, forgot about him.