Beethoven's Piano Sonatas

[Coopmv]

András Schiff is about to embark upon a series of recitals featuring the 32, beginning tomorrow at Wigmore Hall. If you know or find out about any webcast of these recitals, I'd appreciate it if you could post a link here.

http://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/series/schiffbeethovenpianosonatas

The recitals will be released on CD at some point.  I already have quite a few CD's in the Wigmore Hall series ...

[david-jw]

A  "hairs of the back of the neck" Waldstein imo found on thus budget set:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Solomon-Master-Pianist/dp/B00166QKJM/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1353850248&sr=1-1

[George]

Is that the same Waldstein that was released on the Testament label?

[Gurn Blanston]

Someone has put Paul Badura Skoda's Westminster Beethoven LP on symphonyshare.


> I've had a chance to listen to the Appassionata and it surpassed my
> expectations in terms of interpretation. It's interesting because it's
> quite a noble interpretation, which I think is right for heroic
> Beethoven. Very involved playing too, which I found captivating.  It's
> great that this recording has been brought back to life.

For the first time I can hear why Badura Skoda was so highly thought of by traditional conductors like Furtwangler.

> I like the sound of the transfer on symphonyshare. The piano tone is  quite truthful and has that sort
> of warm bloom that people missed in the early days of CD. It would be
> wonderful if someone with the technical skills could remove some of
> the surface noise and pre echo. I bet this could be made to sound very
> good.

This is the set that he recorded on a Bösendorfer and was released on CD 5 or 6 years ago?  Maybe the sound was cleaned up for the transfer?

[Mandryka]

This is the set that he recorded on a Bösendorfer and was released on CD 5 or 6 years ago?  Maybe the sound was cleaned up for the transfer?

As far as I know no, it's never been released on C. I haven't had a chance to hear the pathetique or moonlight -- a friend wrote to me to say that there are some cut outs on the pathetique, so it's probably unrestoreable.

[Wakefield]

This is the set that he recorded on a Bösendorfer and was released on CD 5 or 6 years ago?  Maybe the sound was cleaned up for the transfer?

As Mandryka says the answer is no.

The Westminster recordings only include the "name" sonatas (the "Moonlight", Pathetique", Appassionata", "Pastoral", and "Tempest") and were recorded during the 50s. I don't know the instrument used here by Badura-Skoda.

My real doubt is the following: Is The Musical Heritage Society set the same released on Gramola some years ago?

I mean:

Is this 11-LP set the same set



than this 9-CD set?

[asin]B0000669UV[/asin]

I'm almost sure that they are identical. 

[david-jw]

Is that the same Waldstein that was released on the Testament label?

Hi George

I dont have the testament disc, however according to the EMI booklet this waldstein was recorded 15th June 1952 at Abbey Road.

hth

what are your thoughts on the Testament Waldstein?

David

[Todd]

I mean:

Is this 11-LP set the same set



than this 9-CD set?

[asin]B0000669UV[/asin]

The pianist's own website lists them as different cycles.  If accurate, that means Paul Badura Skoda is part of the three cycle club.  Now, how the hell do I get a copy of his first and third cycles?

[Wakefield]

The pianist's own website lists them as different cycles.  If accurate, that means Paul Badura Skoda is part of the three cycle club.  Now, how the hell do I get a copy of his first and third cycles?

Unfortunately those recordings of The Musical Heritage Society are often a pain in the ass, both in terms of availability and information. For instance, the information about Schumann's complete solo piano works recorded by Jörg Demus, is a true nightmare.

Anyway, I wouldn't bet that Badura-Skoda recorded three complete Beethoven's cycles. 

[Todd]

Anyway, I wouldn't bet that Badura-Skoda recorded three complete Beethoven's cycles.

I don't bet on such things, though, again, the pianist's own web site lists three cycles.  Maybe he and the people who help run the site know more than people here, or perhaps not. 

Potential issues with information aside, perhaps someone who owns the MHS set could look at the recording and/or copyright dates.  If they are before 1970, then there are three cycles.  If not, probably not.  Anyone here actually own the MHS set?

[Wakefield]

I don't bet on such things, though, again, the pianist's own web site lists three cycles.  Maybe he and the people who help run the site know more than people here, or perhaps not. 

Potential issues with information aside, perhaps someone who owns the MHS set could look at the recording and/or copyright dates.  If they are before 1970, then there are three cycles.  If not, probably not.  Anyone here actually own the MHS set?

Jed Distler on ClassicsToday:

Paul Badura-Skoda and the Beethoven sonatas have had a long discographical relationship since the 1950s. The pianist first recorded five "name" sonatas for Westminster (the "Moonlight", Pathetique", Appassionata", "Pastoral", and "Tempest"). He later undertook all 32 sonatas for an LP release brought out in the U.S. by the Musical Heritage Society to tie in with Beethoven's 1970 bicentenary. More recently, he remade the cycle for Astrée, using period instruments. According to Badura-Skoda's American management, the present 1969/70 recordings remained unedited and unreleased until now. In the main, they were worth the wait.

i.e.: He affirms these are different recordings.


Additionally, I also found on the Web this enigmatic list:

http://www.shafferpianos.com/cds/lvb32.html

[George]

Hi George

I dont have the testament disc, however according to the EMI booklet this waldstein was recorded 15th June 1952 at Abbey Road.

Then they are the same. Thanks!

what are your thoughts on the Testament Waldstein?

David

I have yet to hear it. I plan to soon make my way through the Solomon LvB sonata and concerto recordings, as I have now collected them all.

[Holden]

This was the recording that introduced me to the Waldstein (on LP) and it's rather special to me. What distinguishes it is the pearl like clarity that Solomon achieves in the first movement. it's so cleanly articulated, almost jaw droppingly featherweight in some passages, yet he maintains the forward impetus that this movement must have. The Introduzione is played with the right gravitas and leads beautifully into the Rondo.

While it is not at the top of my list of Waldsteins it is certainly in my top 5. Top spot goes to Rudolf Serkin, recorded at approximately the same time.

[George]

Top spot goes to Rudolf Serkin...

Indeed. 

[Brian]

Slightly off-topic, but this morning I remembered to alert Todd that Andreas Staier's new Diabelli Variations CD is recorded on an almost identical piano to the one used by Penelope Crawford. I think it's a modern reconstruction.

[Que]

The pianist's own website lists them as different cycles.  If accurate, that means Paul Badura Skoda is part of the three cycle club.  Now, how the hell do I get a copy of his first and third cycles?

This re-release might interest you:



http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Ludwig-van-Beethoven-1770-1827-Klaviersonaten-Nr-1-32/hnum/1674991

Q

[Todd]

This re-release might interest you

I've got the first Gramola issue (pictured above) of that cycle - it's pretty darned good.  I want the two cycles by him I don't have.

[Wakefield]

This re-release might interest you:



http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Ludwig-van-Beethoven-1770-1827-Klaviersonaten-Nr-1-32/hnum/1674991

Q

Apparently, this re-release differs of the previous release on Gramola, including an extra disc (then now it's a 10-CD set). 

Sämtliche Klaviersonaten

This unforgettable and much vaunted recording of all the piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven by the legendary Austrian pianist Paul Badura-Skoda in the years 1969/70 is now being re-released with an additional CD presenting two more, unpublished interpretations of the famous 'Hammerklavier' Sonata No. 29 in B major op. 106: a live concert recording in Warsaw in 1976 and a studio recording performed on a well preserved fortepiano from Beethoven's time in Vienna in 1980. The enormous differences in the interpretation of one and the same score give an idea of what significance uniqueness has in the rendition of a work. In the booklet to this exceptional comparison, Badura-Skoda portrays his experiences in grappling with this epoch-making work.

[Wakefield]

I insist I don't believe in the existence of that third complete cycle; I mean a complete cycle different of the set released on Gramola or different of the Astrée set.

Its existence would be extremely weird.

The set released on Gramola was recorded between 1969-1970.

The Musical Heritage Society set was released -what a coincidence!- in 1970 to commemorate two hundred years of Beethoven's birth.

And the MHS was never a label known for facing this kind of large projects; on the contrary, it was a label well known for licensing a lot of recordings from Europe.

But I could be wrong... 

[Todd]

The Musical Heritage Society set was released -what a coincidence!- in 1970 to commemorate two hundred years of Beethoven's birth.

Paul Badura Skoda's website lists Intercord as the record label for the first cycle, and gives a recording year of 1955, which would make it one of the earliest cycles after Schnabel.  MHS is also mentioned, presumably in their capacity as a reissue house.  And Distler wrote that the Gramola set was unedited and unreleased until it came out on CD.  Since MHS was LP, it sure looks like there are three cycles.  Until someone can offer definitive proof for or against, all available evidence indicates that PBS is in the rarest of rare company in having recorded three complete sets.  I may have to hunt down the LPs myself.  Hopefully they will be easier to find than Robert Riefling's AWOL cycle.