Beethoven's Piano Sonatas

[Brian]

Albany sent a Steven Masi box to me c/o my newspaper, apparently unaware that my job for them is writing about restaurants. Happy to have it, but initial impression was of a cheap package and a Serious performer.

[Oldnslow]

Wonder what happened to the Igor Tchetuev cycle. I really liked the first 6 volumes on Caro Mitis. I assume the label folded but too bad the cycle could not be completed......

[prémont]

25 is my cutoff.

Regarding the new four disc set of wartime recordings from Kempff, I face a pseudo-dilemma: I can simply stream the set.  For recordings that old, streaming is entirely acceptable, but there's the risk the set is removed.  I'm only 99.75% sure I will buy it.

My Gieseking EMI count was wrong, I have revisited the recordings.

Gieseking's set includes 23 sonatas, the ones which are missing are ns:

16, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 32.

Kempff's pre-war/wartime set includes 24 sonatas, the ones which are missing are ns:

1, 3, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22 and 25.

So Giesekings set is missing a greater amount of "weighty" sonatas.

[Todd]

Intrigued by the Llŷr Williams Beethoven sonatas available for download, I looked around a bit because I could not find volume six.  Turns out a 12-CD box set will be released on Signum in March.

[Todd]

I just had to know, so I did some more looking into incomplete and mystery cycles, and I found one complete set, and three that I would describe as fakes.

First, the new set.  Pianist John Kane appears to have recorded the complete cycle in 2016-2017 at home as part of his extensive Homemade series.  He has recorded a lot of core rep, and he has a YouTube channel, to which he uploaded his Mozart cycle.  He was a student of John Browning, but he is an amateur pianist.  He has his own website: http://www.mykeynoterecords.com/




As to fakes, newly found Vladimir Morrone, along with previously mentioned Giancarlo Andretti and Alicja Kot, all appear to be Claudio Colombo type sets.  For "Morrone" and "Kot", I did some listening via Spotify and Amazon.  The "Morrone" is dreadful in every way.  The "Kot" appears to have had more effort put into it, at least in some movements.  Whoever put the set together botched the last movement of Op 111.  I was unable to find the "Andretti" Beethoven for streaming, but I did find the Mozart, and it just ain't right.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Updated w/Jumppy!

Going the Full Ludwig: Beethoven Sonata Cycle Survey (Part 8, 2010 - 2013) finally updated with @PianistPaavali's set on @OndineRecords:

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/07/beethoven-sonatas-survey-of-complete.html ...

[George]

I just had to know, so I did some more looking into incomplete and mystery cycles, and I found one complete set, and three that I would describe as fakes.

First, the new set.  Pianist John Kane appears to have recorded the complete cycle in 2016-2017 at home as part of his extensive Homemade series.  He has recorded a lot of core rep, and he has a YouTube channel, to which he uploaded his Mozart cycle.  He was a student of John Browning, but he is an amateur pianist.  He has his own website: http://www.mykeynoterecords.com/

Did you listen to samples of his Op. 2/1? Gotta be the fastest tempo I have heard.

http://www.mykeynoterecords.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/hm2201s.mp3

[Brian]

Intrigued by the Llŷr Williams Beethoven sonatas available for download, I looked around a bit because I could not find volume six.  Turns out a 12-CD box set will be released on Signum in March.

Never heard this name before but Judith Sherman is a good sign.

[Todd]

Did you listen to samples of his Op. 2/1? Gotta be the fastest tempo I have heard.

http://www.mykeynoterecords.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/hm2201s.mp3

I've not listened to anything from his LvB yet, though I sampled his Mozart and Chopin.  I'm mulling over whether I should buy the cycle.

Never heard this name before but Judith Sherman is a good sign.

So is being on Signum. 

I've seen a couple of his discs, and he was in town last April.  I opted not to attend his recital.  I hope he doesn't end up being like Igor Kamenz, where I seriously erred by not hearing him live when I had the chance.

[Mandryka]

The "Morrone" is dreadful in every way. 

I couldn't resist trying op 111/ii. I'm afraid to say that for once you're right.

Is it my imagination or did you leave Glenn Gould out of your big list of cycles? Maybe it was a Freudian slip.

I'm not sure that Colombo isn't a real pianist. I mean I believe he does play a piano because I met someone who said they saw him, but maybe to piano folks it's just obvious that it's been programmed. Here are some of his live recordings

http://www.claudiocolombo.net/acustiche.htm

[Todd]

Is it my imagination or did you leave Glenn Gould out of your big list of cycles? Maybe it was a Freudian slip.

He didn't record a cycle.

[Brian]

for once you're right.

*raises eyebrow*

[SurprisedByBeauty]

New updates to the Beethoven Sonata Survey:


Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete Cycles
Part 7, 2006 - 2009
Jean Muller re-issued on Membran


Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete Cycles
Ronald Brautigam's BIS Cycle
Ronald Brautigam's hyper-complete cycle of the complete works for solo piano finished (on individ. volumes)


Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete Cycles
Part 3, 1977 - 1989
Eduardo del Pueyo's cycle on Pavane added, at last.


Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete Cycles
Part 8, 2010 - 2013
SebastiAn Forster's cycle added.


Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete Cycles
Part 5, 1996 - 1999
Yaeko Yamane added.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

I extracted a quick subset of women pianists who have completed the cycle, and added ongoing ones. ... No women from either the US or Germany and Austria have recorded a complete cycle, nor has a woman from France, the UK, or most other European countries.  Curious.

Country		Pianist		Complete		Copy
Russia		Daniela Varinska		Y		N

A small correction, if I may (since it's usually the other way 'round [and much appreciated in every case!]): Danila Varinska is, I believe, Slovakian.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Claire Huangci is an outstanding pianist, but she's not famous yet.  (Hopefully she gets there.)  Other living pianists of note, depending on outlook, include Ursula Oppens, Simone Dinnerstein, Anne-Marie McDermott, and Orli Shaham.  Ruth Laredo was quite good and reasonably famous.  But there should definitely be more and they don't seem to achieve the same type of fame as some male pianists.

Really like Huangci's playing. The new disc is terrific, too... and the fillers (depending on your POV) are as good!
I might have named Ruth Laredo first; she was the grande dame of american pianism for quite a while. (And is really in a different league altogether than Simone Dinnersteen...)

[SurprisedByBeauty]

What's your total count?  Forster and Costa appear to be missing, though I spotted Tamami Honma's forthcoming cycle, so that's a seventeenth complete cycle from a woman, nineteenth all-in.  She boosts Japan's lead, though given that she has been in the US for a while, I guess she could alternatively be counted as an American.

Forster's been added; I'm still collecting information on Costa (recording dates).

On my internal list I've got 105 sets, but my cut-off is at two missing sonatas; I think you are more liberal there. (I've got Gieseking & Gilels, for example, listed among "great incomplete cycles" and they don't count towards those 105. Also not counted are Costa (106, if not chronologically), John Kane, Llyr Williams, Irina Mejoueva (I have some of her recordings' info but not all yet.)

Kosuge is also missing; gathering info on her cycle. I notice her set was just released complete as a SACD-only cycle. (Very cool website/project: http://www.beethoven-mo-de.com/module/interface3.html?file=so.json)

Then there's the Russian collaborative cyle, the Kolesnitschenko / Mursky cycle on Telos... which makes it 113 that I'm at least aware of.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

No info
Elena/Eugène Kolesnitschenko/Mursky

I've found all 12 volumes, between "Naxos Direkt" & JPC (on either it's sufficient to search for "Telos", "Beethoven" and "Klaviersonaten" and some on Amazon...
It involves more artists than just the two above, namely also: Gajane Saakjana, Evgenia Rubinova, Jan Jiracek v. Arnim, Alexandra Neumann, Natasha Vlassenko and Boris Giltburg (!).

[prémont]

Then there's the Russian collaborative cyle, the Kolesnitschenko / Mursky cycle on Telos... which makes it 113 that I'm at least aware of.

Just to be sure, what do you consider "The Russian Collective cycle"?

[Brian]

Just to be sure, what do you consider "The Russian Collective cycle"?

He just posted more info about it in the post immediately before yours. 

[SurprisedByBeauty]

He just posted more info about it in the post immediately before yours. 

Actually, I don't think I did. (Did I?) The Telos cycle is still different from that. That's referring to a cycle on Bomba Piter / Audiophile Classics   with these pianists:
Pavel Egorov, Sergey Uryvaev, Igor Urjash, Valery Vishnevsky, Vladimir Shakin, Galina Sandovskaya, Dmitri Efimov, Igor Lebedev, Lebedev Roman, Tatyana Zagorovskaya, Leonid Zaychik,