Beethoven's Piano Sonatas

[Coopmv]

It's funny, that was my criticism of his entire EMI set. However, in the Pastorale, he uses it as a contrast with the more gentle passages. I also like his tempo choices.

I should listen again to Moravec, Levy, Sofronitsky and Edwin Fischer (if I have it.)

Ao newer is not better ...     

[Brian]

Speaking of newer, just released on August 28 in Europe and due September 12 in the States:
[asin]B007X98RPG[/asin]

This is the 'Marcia funebre,' 'Tempest,' and Opp 54 and 90. Click here for lengthy samples from every track. Also, those are some huge shirtsleeves.

[Todd]

   


Heidsieck vs Heidsieck in the last three.  The EMI recordings I know well, and rate among the best cycles available, certainly in the top 10 were I to try to rank all I've heard.  The Ogam Records Vol I I've been trying to get my hands on for about seven years.  I finally did.  Which is better?  It's pretty much a tie.

The two recordings are stylistically similar, with little changes to tempi here and there, and careful attention to dynamics, with solid rhythmic control and exceptional clarity.  There are some similar unique touches.  For instance, in 110, in both recordings, Heidsieck plays the last repeated chord before the second fugue a bit quieter than the penultimate chord.  He does ride the sustain pedal a little more in the later recording.  Op 111 is, if anything, more aggressive in the opening movement in the newer recording, but only by degrees.  The Arietta is lovely in both, but in the newer one, the boogie-woogie variation is more aloof, more solidly in that late-LvB transcendence mode than the earlier one.  He also emphasizes a brief, three-note figuration in the left hand during the early going of the long chains of trills in both recordings.  Clearly, there's something in that little gesture.

Generally, the earlier recordings seem a bit more secure technically, though Heidsieck was no slouch in 2000, when the Ogam recordings were made.  The later recordings are, for lack of a better description, more introspective and personal.  The sound for the Ogam disc is also very similar to his Victor Mozart sonata recordings, and is bright and clear, but suitably colorful.  The EMI recordings sound similar, just not quite as refined and clean. 

The newer recording simply burnishes Heidsieck's LvB credentials for me.  What a shame he never finished the second cycle. 

[Fred]

Brutal review of Lim

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2012/Sept12/Beethoven_Lim_4649522.htm

I noticed the other day that the BBC has two Leonskaja beethoven recitals (which include 109- 111) available for streaming in its lunchtime concerts series  Lovely performances.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0185d99/Radio_3_Lunchtime_Concert_LSO_St_Lukes_Beethoven_Piano_Sonata_Series_Elisabeth_Leonskaja/

[George]

Brutal review of Lim

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2012/Sept12/Beethoven_Lim_4649522.htm

Bravo, Brian!!!

[Lilas Pastia]

Thanks Todd for your insightful comments about Heidsieck's Beethoven. I'm no piano expert, but I know that what I hear from him is unlike anything else without being in any way idiosyncratic. As you mention, little gestures, figurations, rythmic of thematic particularities mark his readings without ever distracting from the overall flow and integrity of structure. They actually enhance them. It's all the more intriguing to be struck by such details in works that have been played thousand times.  Where did he get that from? Obviously it should be from the score, but doesn't everybody who plays or records the sonatas have the same text to bring to life?

[DavidRoss]

Brutal review of Lim

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2012/Sept12/Beethoven_Lim_4649522.htm

Brian's review is right on...and I love the Adam Sandler line, Brian!

[Brian]

Brutal review of Lim

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2012/Sept12/Beethoven_Lim_4649522.htm

I did my best.

EDIT: I noticed one of my digs was removed by the editors. The header title was not originally "The Piano Sonatas" - it was "The Incomplete Piano Sonatas."

[Karl Henning]

I enjoyed the discretion of "like Glenn Gould (or like a lunatic)."

[Todd]

Brian, I take issue with two things in your review.

First, as to sound, surely Oland, Levinas, Ehlen (still underway, and on its way to being a world class clunker of a cycle), Biret, Muller, and Mejoueva should be considered at least as poor sounding as Lim or Goodyear among modern cycles. 

Second, you went easy on Lim.   

[kishnevi]

Brian,  you were very unfair to Adam Sandler and Mr. Lucas.

[Brian]

Brian, I take issue with two things in your review.

First, as to sound, surely Oland, Levinas, Ehlen (still underway, and on its way to being a world class clunker of a cycle), Biret, Muller, and Mejoueva should be considered at least as poor sounding as Lim or Goodyear among modern cycles. 

Now I feel better about sticking in that utter weasel phrase "that I'm aware of": of these the only cycles I even knew about were Oland and Biret. I definitely screwed up on Biret - for some reason I thought they were older recordings like the LvB/Liszt symphonies, but now I see that recordings got underway in 2002.

Second, you went easy on Lim.   

I wasn't trying to. 

Jeffrey, I do feel guilty about Mr. Lucas, and John Candy, but not really Adam Sandler. I don't think Nick Swardson is well-known enough internationally to have been the butt of that joke, but he was my first choice.

[Scarpia]

I wonder how many people who are so gleefully cheering Brian's excoriation of HJ Lim have actually listened to her recordings of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas? 

I have the CD set, and when I first received it I did what I typically do when I encounter a new Beethoven  Sonata cycle, skipped ahead to my favorite movement of my favorite Sonata (the first movement of Op 101).   I found it marvelously done.  It is only a small part of the set, but I will say that it gave me more pleasure then Backhaus did, or Arrau in the same movement.   Then I navigated to the beginning, Op 2, No 1.  (Of course, finding these sonatas was a bit more challenging then usual because of HJ Lim's peculiar grouping of the Sonatas by Theme.)  The performance of the first Sonata was certainly rather provocative, given HJ Lim's tendency to indulge in abrupt tempo shifts and to take liberties with Beethoven's dynamic markings.  But the first movement was uniquely bracing, the second suitably tender, the third what I would have expected.  Only the finale seemed to suffer from Lim's overindulgence, so that at times it seemed that the stuffing threatened to come out.  I am looking forward to making my way through the rest of the set, and expect a similar experience - boldly provocative, more successful in some places than in others.  What's the point of going into the studio to record these works, of which there are hundreds of versions for sale, if you are not going to do something distinctive?

To come back to the review, I don't think it does it's author any credit. 

[Holden]

I wonder how many people who are so gleefully cheering Brian's excoriation of HJ Lim have actually listened to her recordings of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas? 

To come back to the review, I don't think it does it's author any credit.

But he's listened to the whole cycle whereas you have stated that you haven't so I can't see the basis for any criticism of his review. I have listened to the whole cycle and basically agree with Brian. The credit Brian deserves is that he stuck with it and considering Lim's overall performance this would not have been easy.

[DavidRoss]

I wonder how many people who are so gleefully cheering Brian's excoriation of HJ Lim have actually listened to her recordings of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas? 

Quite a few, judging from comments earlier in the thread. I admit I didn't get very far, trying, like you, only a few of my favorites. It didn't take long to get more than my fill of her bizarre tempo shifts, dynamics, and phrasing. She struck me as not merely clueless but deranged and I wondered if she were mentally ill. Her label executives, too, for continuing to record such a travesty and hyping it so vigorously.

[Karl Henning]

To come back to the review, I don't think it does it's author any credit. 

You want its there, of course..

[DavidRoss]

Buon giorno, Carlo!

[Sergeant Rock]

Brutal review of Lim
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2012/Sept12/Beethoven_Lim_4649522.htm

Brian!...have you been taking lessons from the Hurwitzer? 

Quite a few, judging from comments earlier in the thread.

I'm not sure many have listened to her entire cycle. Holden has. I have. Brian has.  Anyone else? [Edit: Todd] How many have actually bought the box? Again, I don't think many have.

In any case, I agree with Scarpia not Brian (not about what Lim's Beethoven is like--Brian's descriptions and metaphors are right on  --but that I enjoy her style). Lim's Beethoven has given me much pleasure. But I admit it works better in small doses. I divvied out the CDs about one per week for two months, repeating favorite Sonatas more often (like her Moonlight).

Sarge

[Ataraxia]

Brian!...have you been taking lessons from the Hurwitzer? 

I'm not sure many have listened to her entire cycle. Holden has. I have. Brian has. Anyone else? How many have actually bought the box? Again, I don't think many have.

In any case, I agree with Scarpia not Brian (not about what Lim's Beethoven is like--Brian's descriptions and metaphors are right on  --but that I enjoy her style). Lim's Beethoven has given me much pleasure. But I admit it works better in small doses. I divvied out the CDs about one per week for two months, repeating favorite Sonatas more often (like her Moonlight).

Sarge

It's on Spotify FWIW. I listened a little bit and it sounded slightly odd but nothing I couldn't handle. Now I'm really curious, so I might tackle a few sonatas when I get a chance.

[Ataraxia]

And we all know why Sarge likes it.