The New Most Important LvB Sonata Cycle Comparison in the History of the World

[Todd]

Op 111

Andrea Lucchesini – Bracing, rich, slow chords open the Maestoso, which Lucchesini keeps slow – until he slows it down even more, and blurs all the notes, in the transition to the Allegro section.  He plays it with some notable speed in some passages, but also fairly slowly in others.  What he delivers in ample quantities is drama.  Like so much.  Lucchesini then takes over nineteen minutes to play the second movement.  He starts with a gorgeous Arietta, one where beauty overwhelms transcendence.  The first couple variations more or less follow the same tack.  The boogie woogie variation is very fast and vigorous, and then the magic arrives.  If anything, Lucchesini plays even more beautifully, but more hints of transcendence appear as well, and the "little stars" beguile, as do the chains of trills.  Lucchesini makes one of the strongest cases on record for a slow approach to this sonata.

Annie Fischer – Annie's Bösendorfer cuts and hammers and thunders in the opening Maestoso, and then the Allegro is fierce and almost frantic in some places, just grinding forward mercilessly.  What's not to like?  The Arietta is slowish, and it is harder hitting than normal, though it still manages to evoke a bit of that late LvB goodness.  The first two variations more or less carry on the same way, and the boogie woogie variation is hard-hitting and quick.  Annie's earnestness and elevated mien offsets some of the comparative roughness in some of the passages.  The chains of trills are bright, the mood elevated, and the ending a glimpse of Elysian Fields.

Arthur Schnabel – The opening to the Maestoso is comparatively quick, and the Allegro section is very fast, and verging on the sloppy in more than a couple places.  But the energy and excitement cannot be denied.  There's something about hearing real, live playing from nearly a century ago.  The Arietta starts off supremely serenely, the very definition of transcendent.  This does mean that the second half doesn't offer as much stylistic contrast, but continuous sublimity is just fine.  The first variation falls off to mundane sublimity, while the second variation lightens up a bit, while also remaining sublime.  The boogie woogie variation is quick, nicely syncopated, and just a smidge messy.  The "little stars" have a crisp and light, elevated and darned near spiritual feel.  No kiddin'.  The chains of trills, partly due to ancient 78s sound, have an ethereal, lighter than they really were feel, but one ought not to look an electrical recording gift horse in the mouth.  The music sails right off to an Elysian coda.  There are a few quibbles here, I suppose, but this one holds up very well, to write the least.

Daniel-Ben Pienaar – Biting chords with tweaked durations opens the Maestoso, and it is violently thrust at the listener, and the Allegro just speeds things up.  The pulse is unsteady in places, quite purposely, throwing the listener off balance (well, not really) and adding some spice to the music.  The bright, sharp, bass light overall sound renders it darkly mischievous, perhaps even Mephistophelean.  Like Lucchesini, Pienaar takes his sweet time in the second movement, though slow overall playing is the only thing they have in common.  The Arietta starts slow and gets slower, almost like a funeral procession slowed by Xanax, and the playing is not especially beautiful.  The playing remains very slow in the first two variations, but the mood lightens a bit, turning merely somber.  As a result, Pienaar generates gobs of contrast in the third variation without pushing the tempo or adding much in terms of boogie.  Pienaar then makes one of the more obvious stylistic shifts starting with the fourth variation, going straight to transcendental playing of a much gentler feel, with splendid "little stars" and gentle trills played as pianissimo whispers in places. 

Emil Gilels – No recording

Eric Heidsieck – The opening of the Maestoso is fairly light, but the clarity and weighting of the lower registers catches the ear, and the Allegro section is quick and darkly mischievous, and has hints of elegance.  The Arietta is slow and transcendent and gorgeous, but austere.  The first variation sets the rest of the movement on to its transcendent course, sounding elevated and elegant and sort of floats.  The second variation speeds up, but retains the sense of musical floating.  The third variation sounds amply syncopated, but it's sort of relaxed and blended, an ethereal bit of music with lean and sinewy muscle.  The rest of the sonata moves seamlessly from elevated but rich playing, with notable left hand clarity, to lovely, clear, and rounded "little stars", to at times almost feathery chains of trills, and moments of serenity unsurpassed elsewhere, all capped off by a gentle, serene coda.  Heidisieck late LvB is uniformly good, both here and his later studio, digital rerecording of the last five sonatas. 

Friedrich Gulda (Amadeo) – Clear, clean, quick, potent in the Maestoso and Allegro, Gulda's opening movement is no-nonsense, and close to uninterpreted, which is something of an issue.  On the one hand, the playing sounds middle period and purely classical in style, but on the other, one more than kinda wants more.  In the Arietta, Gulda brings his A+ game, as it is slow, contemplative, and evocative of etherealness.  The first variation is more just slow and contained, the second faster but still contained.  The boogie woogie variation not only boogies, not only woogies (in a non-Chris Elliot way), it also rocks.  Gulda keeps things taut the rest of the movement, but he also delivers some of the steadiest, cleanest "little stars" out there, along with some wonderfully measured repeated left hand chords, and crisp, clean chains of trills.  It is not at all the most transportive listening experience, but it's a darned good one. 

Irina Mejoueva (Bijin) – Slightly gruff but potent chords open the Maestoso, which Mejoueva plays somewhat quickly.  The Allegro is likewise potent, and feisty, in the faster music.  But the pianist knows just how to toss in a nice pause for effect.  The unyielding forward drive and lack of pure clarity makes the movement sound borderline aggressive, but not at all too much so.  The Arietta sounds taut and heavy, and not especially rarified or elevated in the first half, but then Mejoueva switches on a dime and goes all transcendent.  The first variation is a bit less transcendent while she turns the second variation relatively punchier than normal and then delivers a bracing third variation, with somewhat muted syncopation but lots of power.  As she moves into the fourth variation, extra beefy left hand playing dominates proceedings for a while, and then come the bright, tense "little stars".  Mejoueva keeps the rest of the sonata quite hard-hitting, though she backs off in the last chain of trills and coda. 

Minsoo Sohn – Sohn absolutely hammers out the forte bits of the Maestoso, and truncates some note values to good effect.  The Allegro section alternates in speed, but it always remains tense, and the loudest playing is absolutely ferocious.  (I have to believe that the piano needed retuning afterward.)  The Arietta is slow and transcendent, but also somewhat plain sounding, almost austere.  Things lighten up but remain rarified in the first couple variations, while the boogie woogie variation is fast 'n' ferocious, while the remaining variations sound somewhat tense though rarified, with somewhat indelicate "little stars" and the chains of trills are bright and dynamically undulating.  While his timing is broad overall, Sohn's playing makes the piece seems shorter than its timing.  Predictably excellent. 

Russell Sherman – Slowish opening chords, with lower registers so deep one thinks of an organ, establish a dark mood.  The Allegro sounds swifter than it is, with Sherman hitting the keys hard, and generating wall rattling energy (the volume was up), but he never generates a hard edge, not even once.  Rather than ferocity, one gets a lengthy growl.  The Arietta starts slow and serene, with the back half adding a sense of contemplation, of searching, of longing for an answer to the unanswered question.  The first two variations maintain a transcendent feel, while the "boogie woogie" variation is beefy and swift, but direct and lacking in the syncopation area, but it still works.  The "little stars" are delicate and colorful and evocative of a dream in some strange way.  So much of the right hand playing right up until the end has a gentleness, and beauty, an almost musical gem like quality, and this holds true for the chains of trills.  The coda ends as though a dream.  Sherman delivers some of his very best playing in his cycle in this sonata.

Wilhelm Backhaus (mono) – Quicker than normal opening bars in the Maestoso gives way to quick and dour playing, which in turn gives way to a quick Allegro that is dynamically flat and almost cold.  The Arietta is steady and not rushed, but it is notably quicker than other takes, and robbed of affecting beauty as a result.  The first variation sounds impatient, the second more so, and the boogie woogie variation sounds rushed, not especially syncopated, and borderline unpleasant.  The "little stars" are rushed to the point of ugliness, and the entire rest of the movement just pushes forward, devoid of anything other than the notes, and those are delivered with mercilessness bordering on the disdainful.  I've never been fond of Backhaus' approach to Op 111, and relistening reinforces that.  Were I to tier all recordings of this sonata, this recording would be in one of the two bottom tiers.  YMMV

Wilhelm Kempff (mono) – Terse in the Maestoso opening, with satisfactory weight, Kempff then moves to a satisfactorily quick Allegro, and one in which some of the left hand playing sounds prominent and almost baroque.  Some of the playing is not as tidy as in some other recordings, but the proper feel is there.  In the fairly quick second movement, Kempff kicks off with a serene, transcendent Arietta.  The first variation breaks away from the transcendent style and sounds close to carefree and light, unburdened.  The second variation sounds even lighter, and the boogie woogie variation is quick but comparatively straight forward.  The rest of the movement is pretty darned quick, with swift "little stars", and equally swift trills.  There's a lack of sentimentality here, somewhat like Backhaus, it's just lighter and more appealing. 

Wilhelm Kempff (stereo) – Terse in the Maestoso opening the uncut first movement, as per usual the sound is a bit thinner, the dynamics a bit broader, the playing a bit less special.  Serenity and transcendence again permeate the Arietta, and the rest of the movement is just a tiny smidge slower than the mono version, which lets the music expand a bit more, lets it unfold in a manner marginally more to my taste, but at the same time, the lightness of the earlier recording is not always as evident. 

Yu Kosuge – The close, pristine recorded sound makes Kosuge's playing sound a bit weightier than it likely is or was in the opening bars of the Maestoso, but one accepts recording reality, especially when what follows in the Allegro is speed and high grade articulation to match almost anyone, and fine dynamic gradations, especially down low, unsurpassed by anyone this side of Yamane.  The way Kosuge holds some pauses and drags out some of the quiet playing before the coda is Snickersific.  Kosuge goes slow in the second movement, and she wastes no time establishing a transcendent feel in the Arietta, which carries over to the first variation, before the second lightens things up, with quicker playing.  The boogie woogie variation rocks and throbs in a wholly satisfactory manner.  The "little stars" are serious and comic, flowing yet stiff, and just sound, well, neat, and dry, so dry.  The chains of trills more than common sort of serve as a backdrop for the other musical goings on, all of which sound splendid, and the coda is, like, Elysian to the max. 


Official Scientific Ranking:
Andrea Lucchesini - 1
Russell Sherman - 2
Minsoo Sohn - 3
Artur Schnabel - 4
Annie Fischer (Hungarton) - 5
Eric Heidsieck - 6
Daniel-Ben Pienaar - 7
Irina Mejoueva (Bijin) - 8
Yu Kosuge - 9
Wilhelm Kempff (DG, mono) - 10
Friedrich Gulda (Amadeo) - 11
Wilhelm Kempff (DG, stereo) - 12
Wilhelm Backhaus (mono) - 13
Emil Gilels - N/A

[Todd]

Let's take a quick break to appreciate the sponsor for this survey:




The results are in!

Official Scientific Ranking:
1 - Minsoo Sohn (Korea); Avg: 2.34375
2 - Andrea Lucchesini (Italy); Avg: 2.78125
3 - Annie Fischer (Hungarton) (Hungary); Avg: 4
4 - Daniel-Ben Pienaar (South Africa); Avg: 5.21875
5 - Irina Mejoueva (Bijin) (Russia); Avg: 5.84375
6 - Artur Schnabel (Austria); Avg: 6.8125
7 - Russell Sherman (USA); Avg: 7.4375
8 - Wilhelm Kempff (DG, mono) (Germany); Avg: 8.125
9 - Yu Kosuge (Japan); Avg: 8.53125
10 - Eric Heidsieck (France); Avg: 9



The Queen is dead!  Long live the King!

Yes, St Annie has relinquished her spot atop extant LvB complete piano sonata cycles.  She remains in the Top Three and she retains her canonized status, as well.  I mean, her elevated status derives from her entire recorded legacy which is, to write the least, extrasuperformidablefantasticwonderful. 

Minsoo Sohn is now the best, the greatest, The One, the standard bearer in Beethoven. 

Andrea Lucchesini, whose cycle has long been a favorite, now sits between Sohn and Annie. 

Other historic developments of note unfolded in this epic and crucial undertaking.  Artur Schnabel, cast out of the Top Ten by Daniel-Ben Pienaar years ago, has returned to the fold.  Pienaar himself moves up to the Top Five.  Wilhelm Backhaus exits the Top Ten altogether, as does Emil Gilels.  Wilhelm Kempff retains one entry with his superior mono cycle.  Eric Heidsieck and Russell Sherman both retain a spot in the Top Ten.  And two more women join St Annie in this rarified company, Irina Mejoueva and Yu Kosuge. 

Now that the best of the best, the greatest ever, the Top Ten has been scientifically determined, I and the world are now ready for the best that 2027 may bring.  2020 was a dud in terms of quantity of cycles – though not quality, as evidenced by Sohn and Mejoueva.  Every cycle from this point forward can quickly and accurately and wholly scientifically be assessed for Top Ten status. 

Of no little geographic interest, the ten pianists hail from ten different countries spanning four continents.  Perhaps James Brawn can put Australia in the Top Ten and Alfredo Perl's upcoming second cycle can put South America in there, too.  Time will tell.

I am going to begin a new campaign whereby I send written demands to the governments of both the country of birth and current residence, if different, of the following pianists, demanding that said governments mandate under law that the pianists record the cycle.  Exorbitant compensation for the artists will be demanded as well.

Herbert Schuch
Ragna Schirmer
Andrea Lucchesini (again, and HIP)
FFG (again)
YES
Behzod Abduraimov (this must happen)
Leif Ove Andsnes
William Youn
Dong-Min Lim
Kit Armstrong
Jamina Gerl
Joseph Moog
Benjamin Grosvenor
Arcadi Volodos (I will request that the US government pay him one trillion dollars)
Krystian Zimerman (I will request that the US government pay him two trillion dollars)

[Todd]

Some quantitative data: