Beethoven's Piano Sonatas

[springrite]

Beginning to dig into the Korstick cycle and I really really like it.


Also, last week driving in the Arizona desert, I listened to Yudina's Hammerklavier. I am surprised at how sensitive the playing was. I was expecting lots of hammering. She did more hammering in Goldberg than she did here! Again, a wonderful performance. She is never boring. Just when you think you know her, she surprises you.

[kishnevi]

Listened to this CD earlier today.  Todd was, if anything,  too positive about it.


Dear Maestro:
I would greatly appreciate your assistance in obtaining a refund for the money I paid for your new Beethoven CD.  It was quite a disappointment.  Are you Maurizio the Mechanical?  Pollini the Plodding?  No life in the first three sonatas on the CD, and barely any in the fourth (op. 22). I am forced to conclude that you recorded this only out of contractual obligation or the feeling that you had to get around to concluding the cycle.  If so,  please refrain from recording the remaining sonatas and leave us the consolation of imagining what you might have done with them, instead of what is on this recording.  I never expected a musician of your caliber to reduce Beethoven to drudge work, but that is what I heard on this CD.

I am severely disappointed in you. 

Yours truly


Jeffrey Smith

[Todd]

It was quite a disappointment.

Gave it a second listen today, and it is easily the worst LvB that Pollini has recorded, and it's probably his worst disc ever.  At least his earlier recordings are still around.

[kishnevi]

Another listener weighs in with an alternative view, "The sonatas aren't among the most familiar, but Pollini is in great form, and the sound is first-rate"  Sante Fe Listener.

Well, the sonics are good.  Which perhaps is unfortunate, since you can't blame them for the bad result.  I only recall having this bad a reaction on first listen to one other recording--Abbado's VPO recording of the Mahler Second.

[George]

I haven't been wowed by Pollini's Beethoven since his live Waldstein and prior to that, his late sonatas. So the poor reviews don't really surprise me.

[Holden]

I have a CD-R with Op 22, 26/1 and 53. It's obviously different to this CD so was it recorded in a studio earlier or is it, as George suggested, live? I have no program notes for this CD-R

[aquablob]

I have a CD-R with Op 22, 26/1 and 53. It's obviously different to this CD so was it recorded in a studio earlier or is it, as George suggested, live? I have no program notes for this CD-R

Probably this live disc, which is very good IMO:

[Todd]

Probably this live disc, which is very good IMO:

That would have to the one.  It's probably his best LvB disc after the late sonatas.

[Mandryka]

Gave it a second listen today, and it is easily the worst LvB that Pollini has recorded, and it's probably his worst disc ever.  At least his earlier recordings are still around.

He sounds angry:  intense, tough and angry. I thought the same of his op2s, that's what he sees the music as being about I guess - anger, hardness.

So basically I'm not really surprised by this new CD.

[Todd]

He sounds angry, intense, tough and angry. I thought the same of his op2s, that's what he sees the music as being about I guess - anger, hardness.

I didn't really hear anger so much as pile driving playing in Op 2, but if his Op 2 was angry, then this disc is characterized by murderous rage.  It makes Kovacevich's early LvB sound positively mellifluous.

[Mandryka]

I didn't really hear anger so much as pile driving playing in Op 2, but if his Op 2 was angry, then this disc is characterized by murderous rage.  It makes Kovacevich's early LvB sound positively mellifluous.

LOL.

A similar thing came up here with a Bach organist, Gerhard Weinberger - I thought of him when I heard the Pollini. And there's a Schumannist called Franz Verraber who also came to mind.  So I find this discussion quite interesting.

Avoid Verraber and Weinberger if you can't enjoy something in the Pollini.

One comment I don't think I agree with is Jeffrey Smith's that it's drudge work. I think it's probably inspired, bold in fact.

[kishnevi]

LOL.

A similar thing came up here with a Bach organist, Gerhard Weinberger - I thought of him when I heard the Pollini. And there's a Schumannist called Franz Verraber who also came to mind.  So I find this discussion quite interesting.

Avoid Verraber and Weinberger if you can't enjoy something in the Pollini.

One comment I don't think I agree with is Jeffrey Smith's that it's drudge work. I think it's probably inspired, bold in fact.

You're talking about the new CD or the performance Holden has?  If it's the new recording--well,  bold and inspiring are not the words I would use to describe it, although the Op. 22 is the only sonata of the four which shows some life in the pianist.   An automaton could have produced an equal result in the other three. 

Mind you,  I generally like Pollini, including the early sonatas he released a few years back that included the angry/pile driving Op. 2 (although to my recollection, neither term really applied to that recording).   But mechanical, plodding, drudge work seem to be the most appropriate descriptors of this performance.

Getting this disc wasn't a high priority, but since the disapprovers have ratcheted up their disapproval to a hysterical pitch on this one, I think it is something I must hear. 

If I'm overreacting,  it's not from disapproval but from disappointment.  Pollini could have been, should have been,  much better in this record.  What we have instead is something on the level of a student recital where the chief aim of the pianist is reduced to getting the notes correct--but at least with the student we could envision the pianist growing and maturing into the music.  Pollini, OTOH, has obviously grown and matured,  but he can only present us with this?

[Wanderer]

That would have to the one.  It's probably his best LvB disc after the late sonatas.

I quite agree. Tremendous disc. His Beethoven went downhill from here.

[Fred]

I see on amazon that sony are about to issue a remastered ogdon hammer

[Mandryka]

Re Pollini, I have a theory about his later style, in Beethoven and in Chopin in fact.  I think he as an idea for the meaning of the music, often a hard one, to do with anger, toughness. And then every phrase, every second of the performance, is made to serve this idea. I think you hear this in op  2/3, some of the stuff on the new CD. And in the nocturne op 48/i on DG.

So the music becomes very focussed, focussed on something tough and nasty (that's fine, and it also explains why he's developed such a hard tone.) But it also becomes undifferentiated emotionally. Moments of energy and intensity and agression aren't contrasted with more relaxed, lyrical passages.

To some extent I'm saying that his way of playing is too simple. I wonder if the same applies to Gerhard Weinberger, in (for example) the Ricercar from Opfer and the Passacaglia.

[Todd]

He has performed these pieces many times in his career

How do you know that?  While it's certainly possible that Pollini has played Op 7, for instance, many times in concert, it's also possible he has not.  I'd bet it's not among his most played works.  Do you have access to some type of performance history of Pollini, or are you just making things up?

Pollini is one of the greatest pianists in recorded history, and his Beethoven is generally excellent, and of course his late sonatas are among the best on record.  That doesn't mean this disc is good.  It is not.  The only thing that prevents me from stating that it's his worst disc is that I haven't heard his first Brahms concerto set or his Mozart with Bohm.  I'd be quite surprised if they were as bad. 

It's hard not to notice that Pollini's last few recordings have not been anywhere near as good as his earlier work. I've eagerly snapped up every Pollini recording upon release for years, and he's just not what he once was.  He's maintained better technique than even Richter did, but that doesn't change the quality of his recordings.  Of course, that's my take, but it's also the take of other people. 

By all means, buy and listen, but your posts, including such thoughtful words as 'prattling', indicate that you are most certainly inclined to listen with a prejudiced ear.  You can attempt to delude yourself to the contrary, I suppose.

[Brian]

It's hard not to notice that Pollini's last few recordings have not been anywhere near as good as his earlier work.

I liked the recent Chopin Sonata No. 2 CD; don't know if that falls in your "decline" category. Of course, it was only my third or fourth Pollini album.

[Todd]

Pollini has played complete Beethoven sonata cycles in concert on numerous occasions

Well, what is the number?  Bland claims of "numerous" are too vague to have any meaning.  And did he perform all of the sonatas simply to be part of a cycle and sell tickets, or because he likes or loves each sonata and wanted to make a statement about each work?  I assume that all pianists who perform and record complete cycles of LvB, Mozart, and so on, do so for reasons other than a deep love and appreciation for each individual work, and that is one of the reasons for the variable quality of complete cycles.  That assumption may be incorrect.  And Pollini may be different.  Or he may not.  Do you have any specific knowledge in this area?

As to technical capacity, Pollini certainly does have chops still, though he doesn't sound as secure as in his 70s recordings.  Ultimately, though, technique isn't everything.  Player pianos are note perfect every time, after all, but who likes listening to them except in Nancarrow?

[Todd]

I liked the recent Chopin Sonata No. 2 CD; don't know if that falls in your "decline" category.

Pollini has had some hits and misses all along.  (Does anyone consider his Debussy to be among the best?)  His late Schumann recordings and LvB Op 10 from about a decade ago were the last discs that were really outstanding for me.  His Op 2 is good, and certainly better than some, but relative to his late sonatas or his live disc, it's just not as inspired or inspiring.  This new LvB and his last new Chopin disc were both outright disappointments. 

And though I don't own it, Pollini apparently selected some Chopin recordings for a release a few years ago.  He chose mostly his 70s recordings. 

[Brian]

What is it to me that Pollini isn't to your taste?  I know with certainty that Pollini is to my taste.

I thought the point was that Pollini is to Todd's taste, very much so, and yet he still finds the last couple albums disappointing.