Muriel Chemin Plays Beethoven

[Todd]

The name Muriel Chemin first popped on my radar literally decades ago when I discovered that she was recording a complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle.  She made it through three volumes, but never finished it.  Then the complete cycle appeared on Odradek.  I thought she had finally finished the cycle, but this is a new cycle with recordings dating from 2017 through 2021, so a pre-Covid/Covid hybrid.  Ms Chemin used a Fabbrini Steinway for the cycle, which typically means good things soundwise.  (Spoiler alert: it does here.)  The set comes with a 144-page multi-lingual booklet and the whole set appears to have received the deluxe treatment.  I went for the nine-dollar 16/44.1 download, so I can't say for sure, though I can say the downloaded booklet is nice and informative.  Now, given the decades long gestation of the cycle, culminating in an all-new set of recordings, and the eyebrow raising timings of some of the works – like the fifty-minute plus Hammerklavier – I did not approach this cycle with particularly high expectations, though I still approached it with a sense of joyful duty.

The first sonata sounds entirely straight forward.  A clean, steady Allegro opens, and then Chemin plays the Adagio in a slow, unexceptionable manner, with enough expression and no outsize anything.  The Allegretto sounds pleasant enough in the outer sections, and the trio sounds nice, too.  But nice translates into a relative lack of dynamic contrast and bite, something reinforced in the Prestissimo, but the fairly good but definitely not SOTA sound contributes.  (Dynamics are a bit limited.)  So, a good enough opener.  The second sonata starts with a steady, slightly broad Allegro vivace and then moves to a true Largo, though one devoid of great dynamic contrast, while the Scherzo comes off as kind of gentle sounding.  So does the Rondo – it's as grazioso as can be.  But bite, drive, and other traits one may want go wanting.  This becomes more obvious in the C Major.  The Allegro con brio sounds relaxed, and seems to drift before the coda, though it sounds genial.  The very Largoesque Adagio sounds lovely, but it lacks weighty left hand playing, drama, and intensity.  Both the Scherzo and Allegro assai have a light, fun sound to them.  The limits in style, most notably the constrained dynamics and accenting, are offset by nice if not great clarity, and geniality. 

In Op 7, the Allegro molto e con brio shares the same musical traits displayed to this point, but adds compressed sonics and somewhat muddied repeated notes to the mix.  The Largo is properly slow, but the dynamic limitations detract a bit.  That written, some of Chemin's right hand playing adds some depth at various points.  The slower and less stormy than average Allegro moves along at a steady tempo that slowly wins the listener over, and in the Rondo, Chemin again manages somehow to sound engaging though any individual performance trait may not be up to the very highest standards.  The ascending arpeggios that start off Op 10/1 are dispatched with just enough vigor and weight, and then the music bops along, with a just right feel.  Once again, in the Adagio molto, Chemin turns in a nothing at all special recording that nonetheless holds the listener's attention completely.  While no one would state that the concluding  movement is a true Prestissimo, the tempo relationships and slightly improved dynamic contrasts make one forget that quickly enough, as in immediately.  In 10/2, Chemin does not lighten the mood, but even remaining somewhat serious, her more relaxed style works, and in the Allegro, for the first time, her left hand playing becomes pointed and the focus of the playing at times, all without sounding overpowering.  The slow movement comes off as the center of the work, and the Presto, rather obviously slower than it should ideally be and when compared to others, works better than its tempo suggest it should.  Op 10/3, which sounds more distantly recorded, starts off with a fairly zippy Presto, but some of the more challenging passages sound slow, and the repeated ascending and descending passages have the same approach as Schiff, sans the panache and speed.  Chemin once again shows real affinity for slow movements, taking her time, adding some nice touches (like a zinger of an arpeggio just after five minutes in), and slowly building up to the climax, which ends up not packing the punch one might hope, but everything else works.  Indeed, Chemin may very well eclipse even Arcadi Volodos or Yaeko Yamane in delivering some of the quietest pianissimo in recorded music history at the end.  Seriously, it's incredibly soft.  (More on this later.)  The Menuetto sounds perfectly paced, and the Rondo has sufficient boogie.  When Chemin needed to, she upped the ante.  That's a good sign.

In the Pathétique, Chemin starts with a dark, weighty Grave, possibly aided by some mixing desk tweaks, and then she delivers a suitably driven Allegro, though it does not sound especially fast or intense.  The Adagio cantabile again serves as the heart of Chemin's conception, containing ample drama, and the Rondo boogies enough.  It also has some truly delightful – more beautiful than it should sound – right hand playing in a couple spots.  I will just say up front that Chemin's Op 14/1 ranks among the best I've heard.  Her execution is not the best, and no specific interpretive element stands out, it's just that the relaxed overall feel, perfect tempo relationships, lyrical slow movement, and just energetic enough finale jells perfectly.  Unsurprisingly, Op 14/2 does too.  The opening Allegro just sounds right.  The theme and variations sound fun, and Chemin's left hand accenting sounds right each and every note, and the Scherzo caps it all off.  Once again, as the coda approaches, Chemin plays some music in a slightly emphasized rather than emphatic way that really catches the ear.  Nice.

Op 22 sort of breaks the series of unexpected hits.  The opening Allegro con brio sounds too sluggish, and even the still just right tempo relationships and nice left-hand playing can't entirely overcome that.  But then those very same traits pay predictably big dividends in the Adagio con molto espressione, which the Fabbrini accentuates further, a sense that carries into the Menuetto.  Chemin's traits all work splendidly in the Rondo, which flows throughout its duration, with only the littlest, loveliest pauses interrupting it.  Op 26 starts with an Andante con variazioni where Chemin's delivery works quite well, starting with a predictably lovely theme and then moving to variations that sound distinct enough but also that all fall within a fairly narrow, slightly relaxed interpretive band.  The Scherzo starts off comparatively slow, and pretty much never sounds zippy, but Chemin does toss in some nice dynamic contrasts and keeps the playing moving along.  The funeral march sounds slow and somber, but displays a comparative lack of dynamic contrast and satisfying accenting, yet it still works, as does the concluding Allegro which cruises along with just enough verve.  A good if not great rendition. 

Op 27/1 starts off with a first movement where Chemin will play chords slowly and beautifully, then switch gears appreciably, gently zipping through ascending and descending passages.  It quickly becomes predictable, but it never becomes tiresome.  When the Allegro section hits, she lets you know that she can play quickly and with potent enough accenting if she so chooses.  The Allegro molto e vivace bops along nicely enough, with Chemin adding more drama and weight, if perhaps the playing becomes a bit congested as the coda approaches.  No issues arise with the solemn, beautiful Adagio con espressione, with the transition at the end starting with a lovely wash of notes that morphs into almost late-LvB trills, and then the work closes with an Allegro vivace possessed of enough oomph, pep, and zip to fully satisfy, with Chemin again delivering wider than normal dynamic contrasts.  (Or at least the recording as presented does so.)  Very nice.  In 27/2, the pianist's style all but guarantees at least a nice Adagio sostenuto, and she delivers.  Slow but not lumbering, and hazy and constrained, it sounds splendid and gives way to a slow Allegretto where left hand accents come to the fore.  The Presto agitato is taken at a quicker tempo, and if clarity and ultimate precision does not match the best versions, it works.  Similarly, Chemin's style implies a truly pastoral Pastorale, and so it turns out.  The opening Allegro, which sounds more like an Andante or Adagio at times, gentle and almost lackadaisical – though in a good way.  While the climax does exhibit some punch, the movement is not about that.  The Andante continues on with the same basic approach, and it of course works well.  In the contextually brisk Scherzo, Chemin delivers chipper playing in the outer sections and suitably weighty playing in the trio, before reverting back to a tuneful, flowing approach in the Rondo.  Sure, the middle section has some grit and grunt, but one just kind of luxuriates in the outer sections. 

Time for the critical Op 31 trio.  Chemin starts off 31/1 with an Allegro vivace just a little on the slow side, but it still flows nicely, and her dynamic contrasts hit the spot, off-setting some of the playing which sounds perhaps not impeccable.  It also imparts a sense of fun, with its pleasingly, jokingly 'off' rhythm.  Blurred trills and a relaxed feel start off the north of twelve minute Adagio grazioso.  The second section maintains a slower tempo than most versions, but the clarity of voices sounds nice, but in the return of the opening material, the not ideally steady left hand playing works against the piece.  The concluding Rondo sounds appealing and fun, but also a bit congested.  In 31/2, Chemin starts with a slow Largo, though it may not quite reach pp as designated, and then the following Allegro lacks sufficient urgency and drama, with the whole thing smoothed out a bit.  To be sure, there's some dynamic and stylistic contrast, just not as much as I prefer.  The same can be written about the Adagio.  Chemin then adds some oomph and drive to the Allegretto, ending on a strong note.  In 31/3, Chemin starts the Allegro with a higher degree of energy, though dynamic contrasts remain a bit muted, but her rubato adds a little more spice.  She keeps things higher energy in the Scherzo, which hums along, though again with slightly limited dynamic contrasts, while the Menuetto sounds lovely and flowing in the outer sections and slightly broad and playful in the trio.  Chemin ends the critical trio with a Presto con fuoco that generally rollicks and sounds nice and fun.  For me, this trio is critical, and while Chemin does good things, she does not deliver sonatas quite to the level of my preferred takes.

Before moving on to the big middle period works, Chemin of course works through the Op 49 works, both all but guaranteed to work well with her style.  They do.  There is a surprise though, the Rondo of 49/1, through her playing and the upper registers of the piano she uses, emerges as the most beautiful and affecting movement of the four.  Now to something meatier.  Op 53 starts off fairly quick and with a gentle pp sound.  She never really achieves an especially swift tempo, and when the score calls for sforzandi, some might be called a bit soft-edged, and the whole opening movement has a sort of dreamy, fantasy-like feel to it.  Some of the more challenging passages sound way too slow and almost pieced together, but it works nicely enough.  Based on her prior sonatas, and other, similar takes, the Introduzione ends up the comparative high point, slow, beautiful and taking maximum advantage of well timed sustains and pauses.  The segue to and opening of the concluding Rondo also benefits from lovely, gentle playing, and Chemin delivers more satisfying and powerful playing in the Prestissimo than she did in the opening movement, but this cannot be called a hard-hitting or virtuosic take.  It is slower, more poetic.  In Op 54, Chemin delivers a charming first theme and by dint of its charm, the slightly slow and constrained (compared to harder hitting takes) second theme contrasts with it very nicely.  In the Allegro, Chemin does not play with the nimbleness and impact of others, but again, the contrast with the opening movement makes it work well enough.  Op 57 sounds more intense and driven than anticipated by this point in the cycle, though dynamics sound compressed and clarity does not match favored versions.  One thing that does stand out is the lovely upper registers, which Chemin brings out in the right places.  As anticipated, the theme and variations movement fares comparatively better, while the final movement again has a congested, unclear, but very energetic, driven sound.  Some of the right hand playing displays a pleasing, cutting sound.  Overall, better than expected, but not a Top Forty version.

Chemin treats Op 78 as a more serious, deeper piece, at least in the over eight-minute long first movement.  She delivers a lovely Adagio cantabile, heavy on the cantabile, and if she does not offer the last word in contrast in the Allegro ma non troppo, it retains a similar rich sound, and a bit of strain.  The Allegro vivace, while a bit slower than normal, has a certain weight and seriousness to it.  Op 79 opens with a vigorous enough Presto alla tedesca, with the left hand playing both prominent but not overbearing, and a generally groovy forward drive.  Chemin gets the acciaccatura right, delivers an almost late period sounding Andante, and in the Vivace she plays with a sense of lightness if not zippy speed.  The opening of Les Adieux hints at a lovely, somber take.  The overall tempo is fine, but contrasts are somewhat muted, and there's not much of a sense of urgency for those who like that style.  The second movement becomes the heart of the interpretation, sounding introspective and almost delicate, though not small-scaled, while the final movement has oomph and drive, but it never displays high levels of verve or unconstrained fingerwork.  Still, nice.  The first movement of Op 90 never truly displays stark enough contrasts or hard-hitting enough playing in the louder passages, but it displays truly admirable clarity, and Chemin shines in the slower music, creating a sense of Schubertian despondency.  Rather unsurprisingly, the second movement comes off well, lyrical, lovely, and proto-Schubertian, though of the heavier variety.  (This cycle makes me think Chemin could do good work in Schubert.)

Wading into the late sonatas proper, I somewhat tempered my expectations given Chemin's style.  Her slightly slow approach does no harm in the opening movement of 101.  If anything, it helps establish an effective late-LvB soundworld, and then when she punches out the music to start the march, it offers a strong and effective contrast, though it does not have the tightest delivery.  She then repeats the overall pattern in the next two movements, and the fugue sounds quite good, with her left hand playing taking on a nice clarity, with admirable evenness in the delivery, though parts of the movement seem a touch ragged.  As mentioned previously, Op 106 clocks in at over fifty minutes, so it is not fast.  It is, though, pretty robust.  Chemin plays the twelve-minute and change opening Allegro with some healthy pedaling and less than ideal clarity and some untidy fingerwork, but she makes it sound bold and quasi-orchestral, and she uses sustains to nice effect.  The Scherzo continues on in the same vein.   The Adagio comes in at over twenty-one minutes, so it's a whopper.  Chemin keeps enough tension for the duration, and she does an estimable job creating a sense of desolation in the latter stages of the movement.  The final movement starts with a nice Largo, but the transition to the fugue sounds lumpy.  As the fugue unfolds, some passages sound fine, but some sound labored and clunky and unclear and super-lumpy.  The calm baroquey music sounds entirely without affect, which is nice, but the movement and sonata are not ultimately my cup of tea, as it were.  A not unexpected result.  So, the late sonatas start off a bit weak.

Chemin starts things off better in 109.  The opening movement immediately establishes a late LvB soundworld, and displays ample power and clarity, but it is in the Adagio espressivo where Chemin shines, bringing Yamane-like quietude in places, and playing the long descending portion just brilliantly.  It so effectively sets up the overall piece that the kind of slow and almost lumbering Prestissimo, with almost (but not quite) too beefy left hand playing.  She then starts the theme and variations with lovely cantabile playing, but it's delivered as a Largo, not the specified Andante.  That's just fine, especially when it transitions into an already elysian first variation.  The second variation hints at "little stars" and has an iridescent lightness.  The third variation has sufficient drive, and then in the fourth she keeps the tempo faster than in the theme, though the overall effect is the same.  The fifth has bite and a touch of roughness to it, while the final variation veers right back into serene playing, interrupted by some tenser and rougher playing, and then it fades away into ethereal silence.  Op 110 starts very slowly, but quickly adopts a more appropriate if still broad tempo.  Chemin again does her best work in the quieter playing, and if she does not play with clarity others bring, her legato makes the work sound elevated.  Chemin then does a good job of hammering out the Allegro molto with some strikingly good dynamic contrasts, enhanced by the quality of the recording.  And the ways she plays the coda, letting it fade away, works much better than it really should.  The final movement opens with an arioso that displays the elevated soundworld used previously, particularly in the second half.  The fugue, taken slowly and deliberately, largely maintains an elevated, very serious and formal sound, and displays nice clarity.  The second arioso returns to the elevated style, and Chemin does a decent, if not great job in the repeated chords.  (I almost always want them louder at the end.)  The inverted fugue starts off almost dreamy and beautiful, and slowly, with a few hiccups, builds up to a sufficiently weighty volume before closing in a just right coda given the style.  Op 111 starts off with hefty and dark lower register playing in the, which is nice, and the Allegro has drive and bite, though the sound quality is bass heavy and reverberant, which lessens impact a bit.  The second movement starts with a nice if not exceptional Arietta, though it becomes more serene in the second half.  The variations start off very nicely, retaining some serenity to start, building to a "boogie woogie" variation with plenty of drive and oomph but a (just fine) foursquare rhythm, and then, more or as less as expected, the magic starts to happen.  Chemin's playing more than just hints at beautiful "little stars".  Here, and in several places through to the end, she surpasses her own quiet playing earlier in the set and may just set the bar for how quiet pianissimo can sound.  She at least matches Volodos and Yamane in the quest for delivering silent music.  It's quite something to (just barely) hear.  The trills, yes, the trills sound lovely, if not as crisp 'n' clean as some others, but not only do they not have to, the effect would be ruined if they did.  As she approaches the coda, some of the playing loses clarity, but when she finally arrives at the last batch of trills, she creates a beautiful, perfectly ethereal feel.  It caps a mixed 111, and a mixed cycle. 

This cycle is easy to assess overall.  It is most definitely not a Top 10 or Top 21 cycle, nor is it a second-tier cycle.  Given the slow tempi and the sometimes less than stellar execution, this would almost seem like a fourth tier set, but it is better than that.  While listening, I always looked forward to the next sonata.  That does not happen with every cycle.  Chemin may not match up with some of the best ivory ticklers, but she reminds me a bit of Wilhelm Kempff.  Even if she doesn't match the best, even if her playing leaves one more hopeful than impressed, even if she misses, the listener doesn't care.  There's an overall rightness to her playing.  (Almost no one matches Kempff in this regard; he can botch multiple bars of notes in live recordings, yet it doesn't matter.  It's a magical touch Cortot also possessed.)  So I place her in the third tier because her playing always sounds at least enjoyable, and often more than that.  I will not return to this cycle frequently, but I will return to it, and this strikes me as the type of cycle where I will just let multiple sonatas run while pursuing other activities, content in the knowledge that my attention will be drawn to the music and only the music from time to time. 

Sound quality is generally very good, but it does vary a bit.  The Fabbrini Steinway (or Steinways) sounds beautiful throughout.